The Danes Family Album
by DiehardJavaJunkie14
Summary: Luke tells Lorelai about his family. Sequel to The Gilmore Handbook, JavaJunkie chapter story.
1. Prologue

**A/N: This is "The Danes Family Album," the sequel to "The Gilmore Handbook". Inspired by a little request from ggsoccerfan512, this fic is looking like a long one, yay! If you haven't read "The Gilmore Handbook", it's okay, you don't NEED to, but… you should, because in my opinion, it's fantastic. Now, on with the story!**

Luke opened the door to the house and took off his jacket. It had been an extremely long day at the diner and he was ready to get home. He was awfully glad Caesar was opening the next morning, because the 'do nothing' day Lorelai had jokingly suggested earlier in the week was sounding better and better by the second. "Lorelai?" he called.

"I'm up here, my hunka hunka burnin' love!" she replied from upstairs.

He shook his head, softly chuckling at her comment, and walked up the stairs to find Lorelai sitting on the bedroom floor. The room looked like it had exploded. There were boxes everywhere, and miscellaneous items scattered across the floor. Lorelai seemed to be going through boxes marked "Luke." He took a deep breath. He wasn't intending for the contents of the boxes to be found right away, because he knew, much like her "Gilmore Handbook," he would have to sit and explain things to Lorelai. "What possessed you to look through all these boxes?" he finally asked.

She shrugged. "I was looking through some of your stuff, you know, trying to get you organized…"

Luke gave her a pointed look. "You? Organize? What sort of weird brain switch happened here while I was gone?"

Lorelai pouted, motioning to her stomach. "In case you've forgotten, I'm pregnant. Pregnant women get crazy when they're bored. You recall the cross stitching extravaganza of month seven, I presume. Anyway, we like to 'nest,' as some call it. Personally, I just think that's an odd term. I think that it reminds me of birds. So, getting to my point ever so quickly, I was bored, decided to go through things in your boxes, and I found this," she said, holding up a huge photo album. "I haven't looked through it yet, but I really think I want to. That is, if you'd allow me, and share it with me. Sorry I went through your stuff."

She handed Luke the album and he stared at the cover. Immediately he recognized the album as the most comprehensive his mother had put together before she passed away. He could remember the day she started it.

_"Luke, will you hand me the scissors over there, please?" Amy asked. _

Eight year old Luke walked the scissors over to his mother. He stood beside her, watching as she placed the pictures exactly how and where they needed to be placed. She never put something in an album haphazardly… she stared at the page, deep in thought, before putting a picture down. She would often rearrange them before placing them permanently. He'd seen her do it hundreds of times, but for some reason he never stopped to watch until that moment.

"It's interesting, isn't it?" she asked as she noticed him standing there.

He nodded. "Who are all those people?" he asked, pointing to the pictures.

Amy smiled. "These pictures are pictures of our family. Our extended family, our real family… they're all in this book. Promise me that you'll keep pictures in this album when you grow up?"

"I will," he said, looking over his mother's shoulder.

"It's very important to keep things like this, Lucas. It makes you remember the people you love, and all the good times you had with them, even when they're not around anymore. And don't forget to tell stories about people in the book… it's good to tell people about your family. I'll make one for your sister, too. You'll each have one to share with other people. How does that sound?"

Luke nodded. "That sounds good," he said.

Amy kissed Luke on the forehead. "Now go outside and play baseball, don't stay in here watching me. It would get rather boring for you after awhile, anyway. So, Luke, if you want to be on the Boston Red Sox someday, you've got to practice, don't you?"

"Yeah, I'm going to go practice. I'm playing third base next game. See you later," Luke said, turning and walking out the front door, grabbing a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie on his way out. 

Lorelai raised her eyebrows as she watched Luke look at the album. "And remember, I owe you. I really owe you, a lot. You sat through forty three amazing, silly, and somewhat quirky rules, all in one sitting, that describe exactly how to be a Gilmore. I can sit and listen to you tell me about stuff that's important to you. What's in the album?"

Luke opened the album and carefully flipped through the pages. "It's my family photo album. My mom started it and I've kept it up since she passed away. She made me promise one day, when I was seven or eight, to keep up with it. Liz has one, too, but I'm sure she doesn't even open it. Actually, she probably has no idea where hers is, knowing my sister as well as I do. She was never very organized, and she'd lose her own head if it weren't attached to her body."

Lorelai smiled, holding out her hands, hinting for Luke to help her get up off of the floor. He pulled her up and she stood beside him, looking at the cover. "Danes Family Album," she read, wrapping her arms around his waist. She looked up at Luke, giving him a sweet smile. "Luke, I really want to see your album! Show me the album," she pleaded, a genuinely interested look in her eyes.

Luke put his arm around her. "It's really nice that you want to know about my family, but you've probably had a long day. We can do this anytime," he said, kissing the top of her head and tucking the album underneath his arm.

She walked over to the bed and smiled. "Come on, Luke!" She sat on the bed, watching Luke put the items that she had scattered across the room back in their boxes. "First, you're cleaning up my mess, which makes me owe you even more. Second, I'm really interested in what you have to say. It's your family, Luke, which means it's my family, too. Luke, tell me about your family. Please?"

He took a look back at her, propped against multiple pillows on the bed. He walked over to her side of the bed. "You really want to look at the album?" he asked, handing it to her.

"Luke," she replied, clutching the album in her hands and patting the spot next to her. "I command you to sit next to me and explain the pictures to me," she teased.

He sighed, unlacing his boots and slipping them off. He climbed onto the bed and propped himself up next to her. "You're really excited about this, aren't you?" he asked.

"So excited," Lorelai squealed, clapping her hands together. "So tell me about your family," she repeated, putting her head on his shoulder.

He took a deep breath. "Well, this album was made by my mom. My mom was always a picture nut, she took pictures of every event we could ever imagine taking pictures of, and then some. Like I said, I kept it up after she passed. It wasn't nearly as good or as comprehensive as what she did, but still, I tried."

Lorelai smiled. "Do we get to see baby pictures? Little Lukey must have been so adorable," Lorelai gushed, reaching for Luke's cheek to pinch. "Or do we get to see really embarrassing pictures? Blackmail worthy, perhaps?"

He jerked out of her reach. "Why do you feel the need to see baby pictures of me? Or any other pictures you can use against me? I thought you were doing something nice for me?"

Lorelai shrugged. "Naturally I want to see what our kid's going to look like," she answered, looking down at her stomach.

"What if it turns out our kid's a girl?" Luke asked.

"A girl can still look like her daddy, Luke, jeez, apparently I have to teach you genetics. Where were you in sophomore biology?" Lorelai joked, playfully elbowing her husband. "And have you forgotten about April, who happens to resemble you slightly?"

"No, I haven't forgotten about April, and I don't know about Biology… I was probably reading something else stuck inside the biology book, pretending like I was paying attention when I wasn't learning a thing. Do you want to look at this or not?" he shot back.

She smiled. "All right, all right, open the album, show me the first page, let's get on with this! And the book inside the book thing? So cliche. Everyone knows that, I'm sure the teachers even knew."


	2. William Danes

**William Danes**

Luke opened the album, and the first pictures in it were of his father. "That is a picture of my dad," Luke said, pointing to a picture in black and white in the top left hand corner. "I think he was about twenty five or twenty six when this picture was taken."

Lorelai smiled. "You look a lot like your dad," Lorelai said with a smile. "That's so nice."

He nodded. "People tell me I look a lot like him."

"Where was the picture taken?" Lorelai asked.

"Well, that was taken in the Hardware store. That was a picture of the Grand Opening. My dad told me that story about six hundred thousand times as a kid," Luke replied.

"I love the stories your parents tell you over and over, like about when they first met, or something like that. Only Mia told me those stories, not my own parents. My father would tell me the stories about him and the insurance business. Nothing fun," Lorelai said with a pout. "Tell me your dad's story!"

"Okay, well, the store had just opened for its first day of business," Luke started.

Lorelai giggled. "I'll bet you use the exact same words as your father used to when he told you this story!"

"I probably will, for the most part, anyway. So, the store had just opened, and my dad's first customer was Buddy," Luke started.

"'Buddy and Maisy' Buddy? 'Sniffy's' Buddy?" Lorelai confirmed.

Luke nodded. "The one and only. He wasn't going to buy anything, but he felt the need to stop by anyway, you know, as a show of support."

_The bells on the door of the hardware store rang and Bill emerged from the stock room to greet his first paying customer. He saw that it was Buddy, and walked out from behind the counter. "Hey, there, Buddy," Bill said with a smile._

"_Well, Bill, you've got yourself a nice place here, looks like you're going to do quite well," Buddy said, shaking Bill's hand. _

Bill smiled. "Thanks, Buddy. Let me know if I can help you with anything."

"What customer service you've got here. Now don't go hiring any of those damn kids around town, or the service will go kaput," Buddy quipped.

Bill shook his head. "I wouldn't dare," he chuckled, walking behind the counter again.

"Well, I'd sure hope not. You've got yourself a hidden gem here. I'm willing to put money down that you'll retire happy and pass the family business on when you want to."

"Yeah, well, the family's the only thing I'm missing at this point," Bill teased.

Buddy shook his head. "It won't be long, especially if Amy has her way. She's an awfully pretty lady, you know," he said, raising his eyebrows.

"We'll see, Buddy. So you want to be my first customer, or what?" Bill asked.

Buddy eyed the plumbing supplies in the corner. "Sure, I'll buy this," he said, picking up a piece of piping and leaving a quarter on the counter. "There's your first purchase."

"Thanks a lot, Buddy," Bill said, putting the piping in a bag and handing it over. "You have a pleasant day now."

"I'll try, thanks a lot. Good luck with the place."

As Buddy walked out, Bill reveled in the satisfaction of his newfound success. He was more proud of the hardware store than he thought was possible. 

Lorelai grinned. "Aww, that's a really good story! Did your dad give you the whole 'go for your dreams' speech with this one? If not, it screams for it. It's one of those stories that needs a speech."

Luke nodded. "Yup. He was really proud of the store, you know, it was Stars Hollow's first successful hardware store. The others were out of the way, all out of town, and of course Stars Hollow citizens can't seem to walk down the road a little, they're all about convenience. Then as he got older and he got sick, the competition came in. He wasn't happy, but he kept his prices low to keep the people coming."

"Sounds like he was a good businessman," Lorelai mused.

"He was. As a kid, I remember him constantly being in the store, organizing, book keeping, taking orders, and other stuff like that. He was a good negotiator, too. He would haggle with his suppliers, but he wouldn't let the customers negotiate too much, that's for sure. I remember being in the store one day and a customer was trying to talk him down. He wouldn't have it."

She shook her head. "I guess that's where you got your 'don't mess with me' attitude, huh?"

"I don't have a 'don't mess with me' attitude," Luke replied.

"No, actually you're just Oscar the Grouch's very, very close relative, my mistake," she teased.

Luke pointed to another picture of his dad in the center of the page. "That was him in high school."

"So that's where you got your love of baseball," Lorelai said, pointing to the picture and letting out a slight giggle.

He shrugged. "I guess it was kind of in me from the beginning. My parents met at a high school baseball game."

Lorelai squealed. "That is so freaking adorable, it's like a fairy tale with extra fluff and adorableness, but no flying fairies or wands or glass slippers and pumpkins. Or fairy godmothers, evil stepsisters, and dwarfs. Have I covered the majority of them?"

Luke rolled his eyes. "If someone looked up 'over enthusiastic' in the dictionary, they'd see a picture of you right there."

"Eh, I actually prefer 'insane,' it's got a little more oomph to it," she said, gesturing as she spoke.

"You want people to classify you as 'insane,' just for fun?" Luke confirmed.

She nodded. "Why, yes, yes I do. It's rather amusing. So your dad liked baseball. Hence your baseball obsession."

"It's not an obsession, and I think we've already clarified where I got my interest in baseball," Luke replied, turning to face Lorelai.

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "So it's an INTEREST, not an obsession? Okay, that's fine, I didn't see you sitting downstairs with your head in your hands, groaning and yelling, when they were playing that… other team and they were losing, no, not at all."

"Okay, really, if you insist on being called insane, I think I could arrange that for you," Luke teased.

She brushed off his comment, looking him in the eye. "You have your dad's eyes."

"That's the word on the street," Luke replied.

Lorelai smiled. "He seemed like such a good guy." She looked down at the album and found a picture of Luke and William on the front steps of his childhood home. "That you?" she asked.

"Yup. I was about five then. My dad used to like to sit on the front steps after work, and I used to sit next to him. A lot of the time, if he had a bad day, he wouldn't say a word, but if he had a good day, we'd talk about a lot of stuff. We did that every day," he recalled, a slight smile forming on his face.

_Luke crept up behind his dad. He wasn't quite sure if he'd had a good day or a bad day yet, so he wanted to approach with caution. "Dad?" he asked softly. _

Bill turned around and smiled at his son. "Hey, there, Luke. How was your day?"

Luke smiled. His dad was definitely having a good day. Luke could tell by the tone of his voice and the smile on his face. It must have been a really good day. "My day was all right," Luke answered, sitting down and putting his chin in his hands.

"Just all right? Whatever happened to 'really great' or 'fantastic'?" Bill asked.

Luke looked down. "I made a girl cry today. Not on purpose, but I made her cry. Then the teacher yelled at me. And I didn't throw a rock at her, or kick her, or anything. I didn't even pull her hair. I wanted to tell her to shut up, but I didn't do that, either. And I still got in trouble."

Bill put his hand on Luke's shoulder. "Did she ask you to marry her, or kiss her or something like that?"

Luke nodded fiercely. "Crazy Carrie tried to kiss me and I told her she couldn't. Then she cried and told the teacher, and I had to say 'sorry'."

"Well, son, let me give you a piece of advice. Girls are always, always crazy. I mean, look at your mother," he teased.

"Bill!" Amy gasped, pretending to be offended.

Luke laughed at his parents' interaction. He found it hard to believe that his mother was crazy, too.

"However crazy they may be, though, Luke, there's always that one that has a mix of craziness, beauty, and charm. Those are the girls you go for," Bill said, directing his comments to his wife.

"How do you know if she has all three? What if she's just crazy?" Luke asked.

Bill winked at Luke. "You'll know," he said with a wink. 

Lorelai smiled. "I am that girl that your dad described! You picked me... just like your dad said..."

"Well, I couldn't exactly disobey my dad…" Luke teased.

Looking at the pictures once more, Lorelai sighed. "I wish I got the opportunity to meet your dad," she said softly. "I really do."

"I wish you could have, too. And you know, my mom would have loved you even more, probably. She'd attempt to teach you to cook."

"Your mom's in this album, right? I want to hear about her," Lorelai said, turning the page.


	3. Amy Danes

**Amy Danes **

Luke smiled as he saw the pictures of his mother in the album. "That's my mom… I think she was sewing me a Halloween costume in that picture," he said. "That was right before she died. It was probably one of the last times I remember her being healthy."

Lorelai smiled. "She made you your Halloween costumes every year? That's so nice! What were you that year?"

He cleared his throat and sidestepped her question. "And this was a picture…"

"Don't think you can get away from me that fast, Luke. I bet you were a Star Trek guy, weren't you?" Lorelai insisted.

"Uh, yeah, sure. So this…"

Lorelai held up her hand. "I want to hear the story! You can't deny that you were a Trekkie, Luke, the whole town has stories about you. Spill your guts, Luke."

"That idea really doesn't sound very appealing to me at all," he said with a roll of his eyes.

"Tell me the story, Luke? Please?" Lorelai asked, pouting.

"Fine, I'll tell you the story. But this goes nowhere," Luke warned.

Lorelai smiled. "I promise, your secret's safe with me, I'll only tell Rory. And I'll make her swear to tell no one else."

"That Halloween, I wanted to have the best costume," Luke started

Lorelai shrugged. "Like every kid on the planet who goes Trick or Treating... who doesn't want the best one? Then you see that kid you hate, who has a better costume than you, and you silently hope it rips or his mask falls off, so yours is again the best… wow, that was a long rant. Continue your story, please, be my guest."

"So I thought for forever about what I wanted to be. My mom would have days set aside to make Liz's costume. Hers were always really girly and really complicated. So, she'd start with Liz's, and then she'd start to make mine. I would tell her what I wanted after Liz's was finished," Luke explained.

_Amy sat at the sewing machine, putting the last touches on the cowgirl costume that she was making for Liz. As Luke came through the door, his younger sister not far behind, he knew exactly what to do. Amy had finally, finally, finished his sister's costume. And then it was his turn to have his costume made. When Amy was finished with Liz's costume, every year, she would finally ask Luke what he wanted to be. And this year, he'd thought long and hard about it._

"Lizzie, sweetheart, come try on your costume!" Amy said, giving Luke a wink, almost as though she knew he was anxious to tell her what his plan was.

Luke watched impatiently as Amy fussed over his sister's costume. He made a face in disgust at the patches of cow spotted material on the jeans, and rolled his eyes when Amy put the hat on Liz's head to complete the costume. As Liz ran off to take a look at herself in the mirror, Amy turned her attention to Luke. "You have the patience of Job, Luke," she said, ruffling his hair. "I'll be with you in just a minute, I promise."

He took off his backpack and reached for a banana in the fruit bowl on the table. A minute could mean hours when it came to Liz, that he knew. He finished the banana, tossed the peel in the trash, and started his homework before Amy finally tapped him on the shoulder. He practically threw his pencil down before hopping out of the chair and taking a deep breath.

"What costume do you want me to make you, Luke?" Amy asked, stooping to his level.

Luke didn't hesitate. "Spock," he said without thinking.

Amy smiled. "I knew you'd say that. That's why your costume's already finished. It's a secret, don't you dare tell your sister, or I'd hear it."

Luke practically ran over to the sewing machine, looking at his costume. Amy had remembered every detail of the costume. Luke had seen the costumes in the store, but he marveled at Amy's ability to recreate the costume much better than the stores could.

"Is it okay? I wasn't sure if I made it correctly, just make sure you let me know if I did something wrong," she said, watching Luke inspect the costume.

Luke shook his head. "It's perfect! Thanks, Mom!"

Amy smiled. "I'm glad you like it. Try it on for me, okay?"

Luke quickly changed into his costume and looked at himself in the mirror. This was sure to be the best Halloween ever. 

Lorelai giggled. "That is the sweetest story. I've tried to imagine you as a kid before, but for some reason, it's hard."

"Why is it hard?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I guess because everyone else around here knew you as a kid, and has this image of little Luke running around. I don't, and I've tried to create one, but I just can't picture you being like, eight, and throwing rocks at girls. I just can't. This little story telling session is helping me, though."

"I didn't throw rocks at girls, but I'm glad you're getting an image," Luke replied.

Lorelai looked at the pictures of Amy as Luke watched her reaction to the pictures. He watched as Lorelai tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and seemed to interpret every picture on the page in her mind. She finally looked at him. "She was beautiful, Luke. She sounds so… magnetic, you know? Like one of those people who everyone knows and everyone loves?"

"She was very social, really involved in the town. I don't remember a festival existing that she didn't want to take some sort of role in," Luke said with a sigh.

"That explains why it's hard for you to get to the festivals," Lorelai said, taking his hand. "I'm sorry if I ever pushed you to go to one. Okay, I'm sorry for the times that I did push you to go to them," she corrected.

He shook his head. "It's okay. It's hard sometimes, but I guess in a way, it makes me feel closer to my mom. So, it's not so bad in the end."

Lorelai gasped as she caught sight of a picture of Luke's parents. They both had numbers on their backs, and they were dancing in the Stars Hollow High School gymnasium. "Your parents did the dance marathon?" she asked, grinning.

"They used to win all the time," Luke answered. "They won every year they entered until my mom got sick."

"Did you watch them dance?" Lorelai asked.

Luke nodded. "I didn't go to the marathons, but I remember watching them while they were practicing."

_Luke sat on top of his bed, reading a comic book, when he heard the radio switch on. It was Dance Marathon time in Stars Hollow, and Bill and Amy were the reigning champions for the sixth year in a row. Luke put down his comic book and tiptoed down the stairs. He sat on the third step, the step where he knew that he was no longer visible. He often sat and listened to the outcome of the ball games on that step. He had liked watching his parents dance. Why, he didn't know._

He felt a pinch on his arm and whipped his head around. "Liz," he hissed. "You're supposed to be in bed! Go to sleep and stop pinching me!"

"I was bored. I wanted to come bother you," she squealed. "Plus I can't sleep with all the music."

"Be quiet. You don't want them to catch you, do you?" Luke warned.

She shrugged. "You'd get caught, too, for letting me stay up, so I don't care."

"_I'm not the one who's supposed to be sleeping right now," Luke shot back._

_Liz rolled her eyes. "Whatever, I'll just tell them you woke me up and told me to sit here. They'll believe me. I'm cuter. And I'm the youngest, and the youngest gets away with everything."_

_Luke turned to Liz. "Be quiet and you won't have to say anything to Mom and Dad, and I'll let you sit here," he insisted._

As Bill took Amy in his arms, Amy quickly pulled away. "Bill, really, now, do you think we're going to be able to dance with all this furniture in the way?" she asked, motioning to the cluttered living room.

Bill shook his head. "I suppose we won't be able to," he said, pushing the couch out of the way and making room on the makeshift dance floor. "Now may I have this dance?"

"You certainly may," Amy answered. "You wouldn't want me to trip, now, would you?"

Bill shook his head as he led her across the living room floor. "Of course not."

_Liz turned to Luke and huffed. "This is boring."_

"Well, then, go upstairs and go to bed, where you were supposed to be all along!" Luke shot back.

She rolled her eyes. "Why do you want to watch them dance, anyway?"

Luke shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I want to learn to dance, too, so I can enter the marathon and kick your butt."

"You wouldn't be able to dance if you tried," Liz said. "I'll bet you a popsicle."

"You're on," Luke said, turning his head. "Just stop bothering me."

As Luke finished the story, Lorelai's smile grew wider. "That's how you learned to dance?"

He shrugged. "Sure, I guess."

"Did she give you a popsicle?" Lorelai pressed. "Because she should give you the popsicle that she owes you. You danced with me, many times."

"I'll remind her of the wager another time. She'll give me the popsicle which I will pass on to you," Luke reasoned.

"You know me awfully well," Lorelai said. "Make it cherry, please?"

Luke rolled his eyes. "I'll pass the message along. And you get whatever flavor you get. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

She giggled. "You know, I never understood that saying? It's a weird saying. I never got a real horse as a gift, and even if I did, I'd just feed it, I wouldn't look at its mouth!"

"Ah, jeez," Luke muttered.

Lorelai took the hint and changed the subject, focusing on the pages of Luke's mother's album once again. "Your mom sounded like a lady I would have adored," Lorelai mused, leaning in to get a closer look at the pictures.

Luke nodded. "My mom was a lot like Mia. They were actually really good friends. I'll get to that when we get to Mia's page in the album, which I'm sure you'll want to see."

Lorelai put her hand on Luke's arm. "We'll go in order. We'll get to it eventually. I'm in no hurry. Let's see who's next."


	4. Liz Danes

**Liz Danes**

The next page was filled with pictures of a smiling little blonde girl, obviously Liz. The majority of the pictures were of Liz as a young child, and the page was probably made before Amy Danes passed away. "This page is pretty much dedicated to the… unique sister I was, uh… that I grew up with," Luke explained, motioning to the collage of pictures in the album.

Lorelai smiled as she looked at the pictures of Liz as a little girl. "She looked like a really sweet little girl."

Luke glared at Lorelai. "Sweet? In what universe? I lived with her, remember that?"

She sighed. "I'm saying that from an outsider's point of view. She probably was annoying, but looking in, you two were the perfect little sibling big sibling combination. You must have had some really nice memories with your sister, right? At least one really nice memory that the two of you can share?"

Luke looked at the pictures, and a picture of him and Liz caught his eye. They were both wearing raincoats, rain boots, and any other rain gear imaginable. Luke had a pained look on his face while Liz grinned to his left, her right leg bent in the picture, almost showing off her boots. The picture brought back a sad memory for Luke, but it was a story that Lorelai would really like. "Well, I remember one time, after my mom passed away... Liz and I got along okay for awhile. She liked to come and find me a lot when she was scared, or she missed our mom." 

"What happened to your mom, again? I'm sorry to be really personal, I was just curious," Lorelai asked.

"She had breast cancer," Luke replied softly.

Lorelai nodded. "Oh. I'm sorry. Okay, so you and Liz, Liz liked to come find you when she got scared."

"She hated thunderstorms, and my mom used to be really good at making us less scared of them. I didn't really need her that much as I got older, but Liz was very slow to grow out of her 'little girl' stage. My mom used to go check on her often, and Liz was upset right after she died. So, Liz came into my room, thinking I'd protect her," Luke started.

_Luke was in the middle of a deep sleep when he felt a sudden plop on his bed and shot up, surprised to have his dream interrupted. He opened his eyes to find Liz at the end of his bed, her lower lip trembling. "Lizzie, what's wrong?" he asked sleepily._

"I'm scared," she admitted, huddling up in her bathrobe. "Mommy always used to come and check on me when it was stormy, and now…" she sighed, obviously trying not to cry. "It's stormy, and she's not here."

He got out of bed and pulled a blanket out of his closet. "You can sleep in my bed for tonight, just tonight, and I'll sleep on the floor. Maybe you won't be scared that way," Luke offered.

Liz wiped her tears with the back of her hand and sniffed. She gave a slight smile and crawled under the covers. "Thank you, Luke," she whispered, pulling the covers up to her neck.

"Why do you have the covers like that?" Luke asked.

She sighed. "I guess no one told you about the vampires," Liz said in a sad tone. "They can bite your neck and suck your blood if you don't cover it with the sheets."

Luke rolled his eyes and grabbed an extra pillow. "Who told you that?"

"_Mike Matthews, he's in fourth grade. He's a genius," Liz replied._

"_Well, trust me, there's no such thing as vampires," he reassured his sister as he attempted to get comfortable on the floor._

"But what about the monsters that live in the closet? There are definitely really big and scary monsters in the closet, right?" Liz asked, concerned for her safety.

He opened his eyes, knowing he wouldn't be able to sleep for awhile. He'd have to tell her something really creative, something that his mom could come up with, on the spot, to make her less afraid. He thought long and hard about what he could tell his sister… maybe, just maybe, he could get away with something if he remembered something his mom had told him. Then his memory served him at exactly the right time. "You know, Mom told me once that monsters hate crackers."

Liz rolled over in the bed. "They do?"

Luke got off of the floor and opened a box of crackers he had in the bottom drawer of his desk. "I used to be afraid of monsters… when I was really, really, REALLY little, of course, but I was afraid. Once. A really long time ago. So Mom gave me crackers, and told me to eat them, and I did. No monster ever touched me."

Liz took a cracker from the box Luke had handed her and popped it into her mouth, chewing rather loudly. "Well, why do you still have crackers in your room, then?" she whispered.

"In case I get hungry," Luke reasoned.

She nodded and took another cracker. "What else did Mom tell you?"

"What else did Mom tell me about what?"

"You know, everything. I miss her already," Liz said, sniffing again.

Luke felt terrible for his little sister. It was hard enough on him realizing that his mom was gone, but Liz didn't have nearly as much time with her as he did. He sighed, trying to remember all the life lessons he had been taught by his mom. "She told me lots of stuff," Luke started. "One thing I can remember is that when you wash your hands for dinner you have to count to 30. Or sing 'happy birthday' in your head. That's how you know when your hands are really clean enough to eat."

"Really?" Liz choked.

He nodded. "And I know lots of other stuff, too. I'll tell you, just try to get to sleep, okay?"

"Okay. You're the best big brother ever," she said, sinking down into the covers once again. 

Lorelai, completely moved by the story, was speechless. It was rare, but she was definitely without words this time. She cleared her throat. "Wow," she said. "That was… uh… so, sad, yet so sweet at the same time. You must have taken great care of her. And you must have been a big help to your dad, for that matter."

"Well, my dad wasn't around all the time, having to work twice as much to support the three of us. It was like my job to look after her," he explained.

She took his hand. "You did a great job. Liz is a great person."

"It was hard for awhile, especially with Jimmy leaving her after Jess was born. Then she grew up and went off on her own, and I pretty much resented myself for letting her… I don't know, get to that point. I guess I protected her too much," Luke said.

Lorelai shook her head. "You did what you could. Liz was Liz, and you were… you. You've always been a protector by nature, Luke. You did fine. Liz may be a little goofy, but she turned out okay. And look how much she adores you now."

"Yeah, she turned out okay," Luke said, giving a half smile.

Lorelai pointed to a picture that had fallen out of the book, of Liz and Doula. "That's an adorable picture of the two of them," she said with a smile.

Luke nodded. "I think you took that one."

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh, well, I guess that's why I like it so much," she teased. "I didn't know. I love how she looks just like Liz."

Luke nodded. "Better Liz than TJ," he said with a roll of the eyes.

"Ha! TJ," Lorelai said, cracking up. "Actually, now that you say it, I think she does look a lot like T.J. That's funny. Hang on, I swear I won't escape… I have to use the bathroom. I'll be quick as a cute little bunny with a cotton ball tail."

Luke sighed. "Sure, sure, a bunny, cotton ball tail, right," he muttered, knowing full well that she'd take a lot longer than she said she was going to. He looked at the picture, putting it back into the album where it belonged, and remembered a conversation he'd had with Liz earlier in the week.

_"Big brother, you're a natural, taking care of little kids like that. Look at her, she adores you," Liz pointed out, referring Doula, who was fast asleep in Luke's arms, her head rested on his flannel clad shoulder. "You're a great babysitter."_

Luke rolled his eyes. "She fell asleep on her own," he replied.

Liz shook her head. "You've got the 'daddy' aura about you that makes her extremely comfortable around you!"

"There's an aura?" Luke asked, perplexed.

_T.J. sighed. "Hello? Auras are the thing that Liz knows best, besides how to make jewelry! Tell him, Liz."_

She nodded. "Lorelai has the 'mommy' aura. It's this… intangible thing that you do, it's like a switch that turns on in your brain. You're in 'daddy' mode when you're around April, but of course you mold that to fit April's needs, and when your little one comes, you're going to have that switch on all the time."

"Even if you don't have any kids near you, Luke. Light's on, no one's home," TJ added.

Luke looked at his brother-in-law. "I understand it now that you explained it to me," he teased, leaving a confused look on TJ's face. "You've experienced the phenomena."

Liz just laughed and took Doula from Luke. "Seriously, Luke, you've got the aura. A very good one. Thanks again for babysitting, and especially on such short notice! We really owe you." she said, planting a kiss on her brother's cheek. 

Luke came back to reality as Lorelai got back on the bed. "How many seconds?"

"Huh?" Luke asked.

"Were you timing me, like I asked?" Lorelai inquired. "How many seconds did I take this time?"

Luke shook his head. "I lost count you were gone for so long," he said, humoring her, and covering up the fact that he wasn't counting after all.

She snapped her fingers. "Darn. I suppose I don't beat my record of four minutes, then, huh?"

"Definitely not one for the Guinness Book of World Records guys to come and verify," he replied.

Lorelai shrugged. "Eventually. Someday, I will beat that record. But for now, I focus my energies on this book you are so kindly sharing with me. Next page, good sir."


	5. Louie Danes

**Louie Danes**

"This page, unfortunately enough, is dedicated to my Uncle Louie. My mom started this page, but then she passed away, so the aesthetics of the book, as you will see with this page and the rest of them, aren't exactly… up to snuff," Luke explained.

Lorelai shook her head. "I'm looking at the flowers, not the garden. This is your Uncle Louie, huh?"

"That's Louie. He was a loner. Obviously. I've told you all of this before, I know. You know what most people know about Louie, like that he was a loner, and he was always… in a bad mood," Luke explained.

"You see him a lot as a kid?" she asked.

Luke shrugged. "Yeah, I did. I didn't necessarily like it, but I did. I remember times where I was completely tortured by Louie. Even if it was supposed to be a good thing, it ended up being a nightmare. But if my dad was there, he'd tell him to lay off."

"Ah. So Louie wasn't a kid person. I sort of understand that now."

Luke shook his head. "Not at all. He hated kids. He didn't really mind me, but Liz used to torture him."

"She's a smart one, Liz," Lorelai mused.

"But as for my experiences with Louie? I remember once, when I was ten, my dad, Louie and I went to Boston to see the Red Sox play. My dad wanted to do something nice for him for his birthday. We shipped Liz off to a friend's house for the weekend, and we picked up Louie and all of his stuff, and we left. We drove the whole way, and being stuck in the car with him was absolutely miserable," Luke explained

"Ooh, that must have been a long drive," Lorelai groaned. "My poor little ten year old Luke! I didn't know you then, but I know it was torture for you, so I feel for you."

"It was torture, you're right. He complained about everything he could possibly complain about, and then some. He mentioned the car, why I was there, how long of a drive it was, how he was hungry… and all the other stuff I eventually learned to drown out. And we stopped at a restaurant on the way up, and he hit on the waitress," Luke recalled. "I felt bad for her, and I was only ten."

"That sounds like Louie to me, although I didn't know Louie while he was alive," she said.

Luke nodded. "Yup, that was Louie. And if you thought those stories were bad, you should have seen him when we were there, at Fenway. That's a good story, you'll actually really enjoy this story. The game hadn't even started, we had just found our seats. We were minding our own business when Louie starts going off on this rant."

"Maybe that's where you get your ability to rant?" Lorelai mused.

Luke shuddered. "I hope I get nothing from my Uncle Louie. Nothing would be perfect for me. Anyway, so we sat down, and all of a sudden, he starts complaining about anything he could possibly complain about."

_Luke, Bill, and Louie found their seats and sat down. Luke opened his program and penciled in the starting lineup while he listened to the conversation his dad and his Uncle Louie were having. "I can't sit in these friggin' seats, Bill!" Louie complained. "There's no leg room, and they aren't even facing the field! And they say Fenway Park is the most magical place on Earth… well, magic my ass!"_

Bill sighed. "Louie, relax, just try and enjoy the ballgame. That's what the seventh inning stretch is for, so you can move your muscles, right Luke?"

Luke nodded in response, watching the players take their positions on the field.

Louie, however, wasn't as placated by Bill's positive response. He took a puff of his cigar. "I don't even know why I come here. Hell, I don't even know why I watch the Red Sox anymore. They always screw up when it counts most, and they haven't won since 1918. They probably won't even win again in my lifetime. Or, let me correct myself, they'll never win, ever again! So, remind me again why I'm here, Bill?"

"You're here simply because Luke and I wanted to do something nice for you on your birthday. We decided to take you here, and you came with us," Bill explained. "You'll thank us one day."

"Birthday, schmirthday. Thank you, shmank you. I hate the Red Sox, I hate these seats, and have you looked at the bullpen lately? Their ERA has ballooned to unimaginable numbers! They can't hit, the Yankees are winning the division by 6 games, and the manager's on his way out! It's a lost cause, Bill. You're influencing your son to like this crap, and he's going to grow up hopeless, all because of the Red Sox," Louie ranted, crossing his arms. "See what they do to my blood pressure?"

"Somehow I think the blood pressure is separate, but that's just me. Well, Louie, don't worry, we'll get you a hot dog and a beer and you'll be fine, right, Luke?"

Luke nodded. "Yeah, Uncle Louie, the hot dogs are good here."

Louie didn't buy it. "Same as you can get in Stars Hollow. And these are way too expensive."

"Can you at least attempt to enjoy the game, Louie? It hasn't even started. I'm sure if Yaz hits two homers, you won't be complaining," Bill insisted.

"Oh, please, Yaz is nothin' compared to Williams. They haven't been the same without old Teddy Ballgame," Louie argued. "There hasn't been yet, and there never will be."

"Whatever you say, Louie," Bill said with a sigh, flagging down the nearest Cracker Jacks vendor. 

"And he complained the rest of the game. He took out his adverse feelings on the umpires. That was actually funny at first. He had some good comments. But it got old by the fifth inning or so, when he ran out of fresh material," Luke recalled.

Lorelai nodded. "I have no idea who they are, the umpires, but I can imagine that would get old. That's like I hate it when people throw popcorn at the movie screen, even if the movie's bad. It's amusing for five minutes or so, then you're out of popcorn and you're hungry."

"You had no idea what I was talking about, did you?"

She crossed her arms. "I knew Fenway was where the Red Sox played. They're baseball. I related your story to something I knew really well, and I attempted to carry the conversation further. What else did you want me to know?" she asked defensively.

Luke wrapped his arm around her. "Nothing. What you knew was perfect for the conversation that we were having. Anyway, so you've gotten a taste of Louie, besides what you already knew."

"It was an interesting taste. Kind of like those Warheads that Rory used to like when she was little, they started off okay, then they got really intensely sour as you went on. Then they ended fine, but they left this after taste in your mouth that was just terrible," Lorelai explained. "Or those Sour Patch Kids… or a sweet tart!"

"Are you comparing my uncle to a candy? Or a variety of candies? There is no good metaphor for my uncle, and you're comparing him to something you actually like?"

Lorelai shrugged. "Hey, I'm tired today. Little mini me in here kept me up all night last night. And second, I thought it was a darn good analogy slash metaphor slash relating concept for my current state of exhaustion."

"That works. Sure," Luke continued. "So Louie was crazy, to say the least. He almost shot one of Babette's cats once."

Lorelai gasped in horror. "He what?"

"I'm assuming you want the story there."

"Uh, you assume correctly, now proceed immediately!" Lorelai insisted.

Luke chuckled. "So there was a coyote warning or something in the area, and my Uncle Louie took it upon himself to be the public defender against coyotes."

"Good Samaritan Louie wasn't the Louie I'd heard so much about," Lorelai mused.

"Well, he got a rifle and a license to hunt out of the whole ordeal, so that was his ulterior motive," Luke explained.

Lorelai nodded knowingly. "Ah, that explains it. Power complex, that's what most villains in the movies tend to have. Go ahead, tell the story."

"So he thought he heard this coyote one night when I was over his house," Luke continued.

_As Luke sat on the couch and watched the football game, Louie and Bill played cards. "What's the score, Luke?" Louie asked._

"_32-17, Baltimore," Luke replied._

"_Ah, forget about sports. It's hopeless, anyway. You hear about those coyote warnings for the county?" Louie asked Bill, taking a sip of beer and laying a card down._

Bill shook his head. "Nope. I didn't, why, we got more coyotes?"

Louie shrugged. "I don't know. Personally, I think they're all made up. Harry's trying to scare us, just like he always has. But what I do know is that Harry's having a conniption fit, telling everyone to be on the lookout for 'em. I personally think he's overreacting, and I doubt we'll ever see a coyote in Stars Hollow. I mean, really, I've never seen one and I've lived here all of my life, unfortunately enough! I'm so glad I'm moving to Florida!"

Luke thought of all the places he would rather be than at Louie's house. He was thirteen, after all, he could be out running, or playing baseball. But Louie would be moving soon, so Luke was often brought to Louie's with his dad. Luke only went along because his dad liked Louie, and he wanted to spend time with his dad. He otherwise despised Louie. But he figured for one night, he would be able to handle it.

"I didn't even know we had coyotes in the area," Louie continued. "But apparently we do. You know Stars Hollow, always in a panic. It could be anything in those bushes. It could be that dumb Gleason kid, the youngest, what's his name?"

"Kirk," Bill offered.

Louie shrugged. "Anyway, I keep my new rifle right here, just in case. I got myself a license to carry a gun, and a hunting license. And you know I'm not lying when I say that I'll shoot it, whatever the hell it is. I don't want to be charged with manslaughter, but I'm willing to take a violation for shooting whatever the hell's the animal or other creature in the bushes."

As Louie went on, Luke heard rustling outside. He turned to face Louie and his dad. "Uh, I think there's something out there."

Louie grabbed his rifle and barged out the back door and into the yard. Bill gave Luke a concerned look and followed Louie. "Perfect timing," he said under his breath. "Louie, make sure that's not a person, now. Be careful."

"I'm gonna shoot! Get the hell outta the bushes, hands up, if you value your life!" Louie shouted.

Bill sighed. "I guess that's careful enough. Don't shoot, Louie, just shoo it away."

"Shoo it away? What kind of man would I be if I 'shoo' something? Back away, Bill" Louie ordered, pulling the trigger of his rifle.

Luke couldn't help but watch. The football game wasn't going to get much action in the next few minutes, so he followed Louie and Bill outside. After Louie fired the rifle, Luke could visualize Kirk coming out of the bushes, white as a ghost, scared at the near miss he'd just experienced. Luke would surely be hearing about the near death experience Kirk had for years. But he didn't get his wish. Instead, Babette came running down the street in a frenzy. "DON'T SHOOT PEACHES!" she shrieked. "PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPON! DON'T SHOOT! PLEASE!"

"Peaches?" Louie grumbled. "Who's Peaches?"

Bill sighed. "Her cat's name is Peaches. She's an escape artist."

"_The cat's an escape artist or Babette's an escape artist?" Louie asked._

"_The cat, of course, Louie, now, make sure you find that cat!" Bill insisted. "Or you're going to be the victim of the manslaughter we discussed earlier!"_

"Louie, you damn fool, not everything you hear in those bushes is a coyote! Peaches! Come out, it's all right, baby, come to momma!" Babette said, smacking her lips and whistling for her cat.

Babette kept calling, and finally, the cat emerged from the bushes, shaking and scared, and Babette scooped the cat up and promptly walked away. "You watch what you're shootin', you dufus!" 

"_She's awfully lucky I am a shitty hunter," Louie mused, walking back inside._

Lorelai was shocked. "Imagine if the cat had been shot. Would you have taken it to the animal hospital like you did for Paul Anka in his time of need?"

"Babette would probably have taken the rifle and turned it on Louie," Luke agreed. "And my dad would have taken the cat. I would have gone."

Lorelai nodded. "That would have been a good Stars Hollow-esque story. But this one's good enough."

"This was awfully close to it, so I'm putting it up there with the classic Taylor stories. She looked like she could have killed him with her bare hands, she was so angry. I swore she'd kill Louie if she could have."

"No, your version was fantastic. Honestly, I can picture Babette running down that street, freaking out. Babette was a single crazy cat lady then, right?"

Luke nodded. "Yes. She was either dating Morey or hadn't met him yet. I can't remember, but that's beside the point anyway."

"That was a good story! Who's next in this fantastic album of yours?" Lorelai asked.

"You can turn the page and find out," Luke suggested.

"How about you give me a hint? And I can try to guess who has the next page?"

"A hint?" Luke repeated.

She nodded. "A really, really hard hint, so I have to guess!"

"Okay, Truncheon," Luke said.

Lorelai scrunched up her nose. "Who's Truncheon? That's WAY too hard of a hint, Luke! Come on! One more!"

Luke sighed. "You asked for a hard hint, I gave you one. I gave you exactly what you wanted, so what's the problem?"

"That was TOO hard! I wanted it to be just hard enough, but not overly difficult! Luke!" Lorelai groaned.

"Just turn the page," he said, reaching across and turning it for her.


	6. Jess Mariano

**Jess Mariano **

As Luke turned the page, Lorelai let out a giggle. She stifled it quickly, taking a deep breath to calm herself down. Her attempts didn't get past Luke.

"What?" he asked. "What's so funny?"

Lorelai shook her head, laughing out loud this time. "THAT is JESS? Wow, did he look… different as a kid."

"This is the part of the album dedicated to the one and only Jess Mariano," Luke explained.

Pointing to a picture of Jess in grade school, Lorelai continued to giggle, leaning her head on Luke's shoulder as she laughed. She tried her hardest to regain her composure, but she couldn't for the longest time. Finally, she wiped the tears coming from her eyes and sat up again. "Okay, sorry, I'm listening. He just looks so much less… I don't know, angsty, then I remembered him being at sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen ish."

Luke shrugged. "What six-year-old has that much pent up anger?"

"Uh, there are some out there," Lorelai pointed out. "And TRUNCHEON? That was your hint? You confused me. A lot."

"Why did I confuse you?" Luke asked. "You wanted a difficult hint, I tried to give you what you asked for. How is that confusing?"

She pouted, crossing her arms again. "It was supposed to be a hard hint that I would REMEMBER! Now I remember what Truncheon is, it's got to do with his book thing, but jeez, you should have given me a hint that would stick! You're a bad hint giver. I suppose I won't be getting any good Christmas present hints."

"Anyway," Luke continued, "Liz used to send me pictures of Jess every year, in those cheesy Christmas cards, and I just stuck them in here. I didn't bother to attach them until recently."

"Ah. I see. And there's a more recent picture of Jess, the little hoodlum that he is," Lorelai teased.

Luke shrugged. "He wasn't the easiest person on Earth to deal with, but he's done well for himself."

Lorelai nodded in agreement, pointing to a picture of Jess reading in Luke's apartment. "When did you take that one?" she asked.

"I'd just gotten a new digital camera, I wanted to see if it would work, you know, mess around with it, test it out. He happened to be there, so, he was what I took a picture of," Luke answered.

"The innocent victim of one of Luke's famous crazy shenanigans," she giggled.

"I don't know about the shenanigans part, but I do know that he wasn't very happy with me, that's for sure," Luke recalled.

_Luke turned on the camera, pushing the button on the top to zoom in and out. That worked, it worked fine. He pulled the camera further from his face, still adjusting to the display screen rather than the eye hole he was used to looking into. He reached for the instruction booklet, but it seemed to have fallen off of the table. Ah, he'd get it later. He'd use trial and error until he decided he needed the book._

Lorelai surely hadn't convinced him to get the camera purposely, but hearing her brag about how she could print pictures out right after she took them got him curious. The next thing he knew, he had driven to Hartford, talked to an obnoxiously perky salesperson with a fake perfectly white smile, bought a camera, driven back and was now trying to figure out how to use his new digital camera. He would never admit to her that he caved and actually bought one, but maybe he would be able to use it at some point.

He zoomed in on Jess, who reading in the corner, and snapped a picture. The flash was on, and Luke silently cursed himself after it went off. That was the most obvious thing he should have remembered to check, and he needed the instructions for that. He quickly pretended not to notice what went on.

"What was that?" Jess asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked up from his book.

Luke shook his head. "Nothing, don't worry about it, just go back to reading your book."

"I'm not stupid, you know, the 'nothing' answer won't suffice here. And don't give me the 'it was a flash of lightning' speech. I was born at night, but it definitely wasn't last night," Jess replied.

"I was testing out my camera, there's no need for you to interfere with my experimentation," Luke shot back, looking through the instruction manual.

Jess snorted. "All right, Dr. Jekyll, you continue your experimentation, mix up lots of potions and make play-dough from your elixirs. Just don't blow up the house, all right? And delete that picture of me," he insisted, pointing to the camera.

"I didn't take a picture of you," Luke protested, trying his best not to get caught lying.

"Let me know if a spider bites you while you're in here, all right? Then I'll know why I see Spiderman hanging upside down outside the diner kissing Lorelai in the rain," Jess added, grabbing his jacket. "And I'm serious, delete that picture of me. I'm going out."

Luke sighed. "Fine, fine, just be aware when you get back, I may have put a potion of some sort in your drink," he called after his nephew. "And we'll talk about that Spiderman comment later." 

Lorelai raised her eyebrows. "Ooh, upside down, kissing in the rain. That could be rather steamy, I think I want to try it. Do you want to try it?"

"No," Luke answered without a second thought.

Lorelai pouted. "There goes one of my romantic fantasies, out the window. Bye bye," she groaned, putting her head back on the pillows, acting a little overdramatic to amuse herself.

"You are never satisfied, are you?" Luke asked.

She shrugged. "I'll survive without an upside down kiss, I GUESS. Since you're making me go without an upside down kiss, I'm obviously going to have to learn to live without it. That's fine, Mr. Boring Pants. Do you have another Jess Mariano story for us?"

"I have novels. Anyway, Jess and I actually talked after he and Rory met up that one time…" Luke explained.

Lorelai nodded. "Ah, that time. I didn't hear about that one until… fairly recently. He basically tore Logan to shreds, didn't he?"

"Looked that way. He did it to me, anyway. And from the way Rory described it, it sounds like he acted the same way in front of Logan and Rory. He obviously wasn't thrilled with Rory's… choice of a boyfriend," Luke agreed.

"Well, to be honest, I haven't been thrilled with Rory's choice of boyfriends since Dean. And it took me awhile to be thrilled with him. And at the end, I wasn't really jumping for joy about him, so let's just say single Rory is the best Rory for now," she added.

"Jess stopped by the diner… you know, asking me where she was. He didn't tell anyone, he just kind of showed up and stayed to talk for a little while. I told him where she was, he went to visit her," he admitted.

"I see," Lorelai said.

"After he met up with Rory, and that whole… incident happened he came by again. I didn't know he was coming until I walked up to my apartment after the dinner rush one night. He's lucky I still had energy to talk to him."

_Luke finished counting the money in the register, locked the front door, and headed upstairs. He was curious as to what the score of the Patriots game was, and a glance at the clock told him that it was definitely still in the first quarter. A beer and the game sounded relaxing. Until Luke went upstairs and found Jess._

"_Jess!" Luke said, surprised to see him sitting on the couch._

"So what's with this Logan guy?" Jess demanded.

Luke rolled his eyes. "You met Logan, I presume."

"The Blonde Dick at Yale," he snorted. "I mean, you told me about Rory and Lorelai's… fight, disagreement, whatever. And I figured out the rest from Rory, and… it's just not… her."

Luke sat down. "Don't I know it."

"Trust me, I know the whole 'lost cause' attitude is hard to get through on sometimes. But I didn't think that would happen to Rory. She was always the girl who wasn't… I don't know, like the rest of them. She wasn't ever affected by what other people said," Jess continued. "And what a jerk, that his DAD did that to her?"

"I agree. I hate seeing her upset, just as much as you do. I have to deal with Lorelai's end of it, being angry and… not speaking to Rory, it upsets her, too. We're all just as confused as you," Luke answered.

Jess shrugged. "Well, I hope she comes to her senses soon."

"I think we all do," Luke answered. "She just has to do it on her own. She will, eventually. She knows what she wants, she just got a little… sidetracked. I know she'll come around."

"And the DAR? I thought that was full of lepers or something, according to the way Rory explained how Lorelai totally hated her parents' lifestyle. And now, here's Rory Gilmore, living with her grandparents. I just… it's not Rory. It's stupid," Jess added.

"I know what you mean." 

Lorelai gave a slight smile. "You know, Jess did turn out all right."

Luke nodded. "Yeah, he did. He was really angry that day… upset about Logan, upset about Rory living with her grandparents… upset about the whole situation. I think he eventually came to understand it, but he was really concerned."

"He was looking out for Rory. Which was very honorable of him. Tell him he's a good guy," Lorelai insisted.

"I will. He'd like to hear that from you, though," Luke replied.

Lorelai smiled. "I've told him that. I mentioned it to him on our wedding day, but I think he thought I was drunk."

"Ah. But you tell me all the time, 'I never get drunk, I get tipsy,' so how does that happen?" Luke teased.

She sighed. "Fine, fine, you win. I've gotten drunk a few times, one of them resulting in Rory, but all the rest? Tipsy. The word, and the state itself, are both more ladylike. I stick out my pinky finger when I have champagne. Oh, and I have some questions for you."

"Go ahead," Luke said, almost scared to hear what she came up with.

"Does this album go in chronological order? Who's next? Are there any of your exes in this album that I should prepare myself for?" she rambled.

"Whoa, one question at a time. Turn the page, if you're so curious," Luke insisted.


	7. Miss Patty

**Patricia "Miss Patty" LaCosta **

Lorelai had to squint to recognize the picture of a young Miss Patty on the next page. Pulling the album closer, she analyzed the picture further and she gasped when she finally figured out who it was. "Miss Patty?" she said, looking to Luke for confirmation. Luke nodded. "That's Patty. Right after Broadway."

"She's not related to you by blood, is she?"

"That was her," Luke said, chuckling and shaking his head. "And no, she isn't related to me. But my mom had a bunch of pictures, and I promised her that I'd continue the album... she wanted to make the album include everyone, and I'm trying to include people she would have wanted me to if she would have known them. She did know Miss Patty though."

Lorelai rubbed her hands together, letting out an evil laugh. "So you're going to tell me about her husbands? And why the marriages didn't work out? Right? Come ON, Luke, I've always been DYING to know! I bet you have some amazing stories about her. Did she ever hit on your dad? Is Miss Patty really as young as she presents herself, or did she go 'under the knife'? Luke, this is important information, and if you don't spill what you know…"

He held up his hand. "If you'd ever stop talking for about 5 seconds, I would be able to tell you what I know. My mom was good friends with Patty, so I can tell you what I know for sure. But I don't know everything, so don't get your hopes up, all right?"

"Any information is greatly appreciated, trust me, Luke. Patty has been a mystery to me for years, and I just want to know the truth, the dirt, the dealio…"

"Do you, really? Because you're talking an awful lot for wanting to hear the dirt about Patty, which I don't really have anyway, but if you want to know anything at all…" Luke interrupted.

Lorelai smiled. "Okay, story time now. No more random interruptions for awhile."

"Well," Luke started, clearing his throat, "Miss Patty constantly tried to get my mom to put Liz in her dance class. She was just starting out, after her run on Broadway or something. I was young, I really don't remember much about Patty's whereabouts during that time. Anyway, I remember just getting out of kindergarten or first grade or something like that. Liz was little."

_"Amy, doll face, how are you?" Miss Patty asked from the entrance of her dance studio._

Amy smiled. "I'm doing well, Patty, how are you?"

"Just fine, dear. Luke, look at you, looking more and more like your father every day!" she said, bending down and pinching Luke's cheek. "And little Lizzie, gorgeous as always. You know, Amy, she'd look great in a tutu. We need another little blonde in my 11:00 Tuesday morning class. She'd be great at ballet!" Miss Patty gushed.

Amy giggled. "Patty, that's very kind of you, but I'm afraid Lizzie may be a little too young for ballet quite yet. Maybe next fall. I promise I'll bring her by."

"You'd better. She looks like a natural. I can spot a natural from MILES away, Amy, you know that?"

"I have no doubts," Amy replied, absent-mindedly playing with Liz's curly hair.

Miss Patty then turned her attention to Luke. "And Luke, you know we could always use a male dancer in our class? The girls would tackle you at an instant! You're simply that adorable."

"While that's entirely sweet of you, Patty, it's not such a good idea. Luke's got T-ball coming up in the Spring, and it's not… on his radar screen at this point. Thanks for including him, though," Amy replied.

"It's my pleasure. How is Bill?" Miss Patty asked with a smile.

Amy shrugged. "You know Bill, it's business as usual. He's headed up to Boston with Louie next weekend for the Red Sox series against the Yankees. Sometimes I think they're team stalkers. I mean, I love baseball, but those two… oh, man. They're… dedicated."

Miss Patty nodded. "That was how my first husband was with the Yankees. He worshipped the ground they walked on, it was absolutely the end of the world if they lost, even if it wasn't a real game… you know exactly how I felt. That was only the tiny factor in the divorce," she mentioned, shaking her head.

"I see. Well, I'd better get Luke home, we need to work on his homework and get Lizzie down for a nap… it was nice seeing you," Amy said.

"You too, darling. Bye now, Luke!" Miss Patty said, waving to Luke as he walked away.

As Amy led Luke back to the house, Luke looked up at his mother. "Is my cheek going to be this red forever? I hate it when she pinches me," he said, referring to Miss Patty's pinching session early in the conversation.

Amy ruffled Luke's hair. "It won't be red forever, but would an apple pie make you feel a little better in the meantime?"

Luke grinned. "Sure!" 

"Ah, so that's where the cheek pinching aversion comes from!" Lorelai squealed.

"Actually, it came from the fact that it existed. Not necessarily because Patty pinched my cheek," Luke explained.

Lorelai nodded. "I can see what you mean. I used to have an aunt who used to do that to me. I used to hate her guts, just because she pinched me. But you don't hate Patty, do you?"

"No," Luke said, his eyebrows furrowing. "Why would you ask me that? She's in the album, obviously I don't hate her."

"Well, I'm just checking. Making sure you're not going to make a voodoo doll of her and let me accidentally find it," she said, playfully poking her husband. "I'm assuming you have another story about the lovely and talented Miss Patty?"

"What kind of story are you looking for? I have stories, but I want to make sure this is going to entertain you. You're a very intense critic."

She grinned. "Just call me Roger Ebert. Well, let's see. How about… a story about one of Miss Patty's earlier Stars Hollow show business endeavors? Was she ever in a play? I bet she tried to get everyone in those dance numbers."

Luke sighed. "I have plenty of those kinds of stories. She's tried to rope me into things since she knew me. Which one would you like to hear about first?"

"What are my choices?"

Luke sighed. "You are a very… unique person, you know that?"

She smiled. "Color me crazy, as long as it's a pretty color. Like "Tickle Me Pink" or something, but it most definitely can't be seasick green."

"Crayola has a color called seasick green?" Luke asked, scrunching up his nose. "That's the weirdest thing that I've ever heard."

Lorelai laughed, shaking her head. "No, that's what the general public calls it, because it's a disgusting color, therefore it has a disgusting connotation. We have to teach you a lot, don't we?"

"Apparently so," Luke said, half smiling.

"But you have to finish your lessons first," she insisted. She pointed to the album. "Story? Hello?"

Luke nodded. "All right. Have you ever heard about the time when Patty tried to direct her own production?"

She giggled. "No! When was this?"

"It was about a year or so before we met. She tried to do a production of 'Hairspray' and she couldn't find anyone to be one character, so she begged me to do it. I, of course, declined."

Lorelai grinned. "Tell me about this story. This should be a really good story for me to pass on to Rory via e mail. She gets lonely occasionally. It would make her laugh."

_Miss Patty made her way to the counter to talk to Luke. "Hey, there, Luke, can I ask you a favor?"_

"_What kind of favor are you asking for?" Luke inquired, opening the cash register. He knew better than to just accept and realize what he'd gotten himself into afterward._

"_Well, I'm looking for your help in one of Stars Hollow's musical productions. I'm one character short and I can think of no one more fitting to fill the heartthrob role for this particular musical," Miss Patty suggested, leaning against the counter._

_Luke shook his head. "Nope. Sorry, Patty."_

"_Please, Luke, we need a Link Larkin! I know you're not musical savvy, but we can teach you everything you could possibly need to know, I'll work with you one on one! I'll work around your schedule!" Miss Patty begged._

Luke stopped what he was doing. "Patty, look, I'm sorry you're in such a bind. But no matter how much you beg me, no matter how many times you ask, I won't give in. I'm not going to be in a musical. I don't sing and I don't dance. Now please stop asking me?"

"But Luke! You may have a gift you never knew you had! It may be a latent talent, this hidden gem of ability you just discover!" Miss Patty insisted.

"No. Ask Kirk. I'm sure Kirk would be more than willing to play the heartthrob that you say you need for this play."

"First, it's not just a play. It's a very famous Broadway caliber musical, and a movie. But we're focused on stage performance here. Kirk is Corny Collins, Luke, he simply can't play two roles that collide in the same scene!" Miss Patty gasped.

"Why don't you find someone else to play that part that Kirk originally had, and promote Kirk?" Luke asked, exasperated.

Miss Patty threw up her hands. "You don't want to do me one favor? One teeny tiny little favor?"

"No," Luke said, shaking his head. "When have I ever participated in something as stupid as this?"

Miss Patty rolled her eyes. "You just can't appreciate a good musical when you hear about one. Maybe someday."

"Good luck finding someone, to help you out, Patty."

Miss Patty sighed. "Well, thanks anyway. At least come and see this play?"

"I will do my best," he agreed, just to get her to stop asking him.

Lorelai shook her head, a grin plastered on her face and tears falling down her face. "Unbelievable," she mused.

"And that is the story of Miss Patty's attempt to direct 'Hairspray', Stars Hollow style."

"An amazingly funny story at that, Luke. Wow, you are basically the Stars Hollow historian here, aren't you?" Lorelai asked. "And I loved hearing you say the word 'heartthrob."

"Ah, jeez, Lorelai. And I'm not the Stars Hollow Town historian, but if that's what you want to call me, sure, go ahead."

Lorelai looked down at her stomach. "You know, I'm sure you're going to have the best stories for our kid?"

"You think?" he asked.

She nodded. "I do. But of course, you have to try them out on me first, so I can approve their content," she said, giving him a wink.

He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. "Well, I guess that means I have to keep going then, doesn't it?"

"It does. Moving right along!"


	8. Babette Dell

**Babette Dell **

As Luke turned the page, Lorelai grinned. "Ooh! That's Babette. There's definitely no mistaking Babette," she said confidently.

"Nope. No mistaking Babette," Luke replied. "She's just the same as she always was."

"I bet she is. Tell me a really good Babette story!" she said enthusiastically, playing with a string on the sleeve of Luke's blue flannel shirt.

"Well, uh, sure. Let me think of a good Babette story. Okay. My dad had just passed away, and Babette thought I needed to keep busy. She talked me into cat sitting for her cat, which at the time was Sugarplum," Luke replied, shaking his head.

Lorelai was stunned. "You? Cat sitter? I think she really got under your skin, Luke."

Luke sighed. "I'll tell you the story, then you'll see if you feel the same way after that."

"Maybe I will, maybe I won't. But what I do know is that you probably had to feed the cat Meow Mix, and I can just picture… actually I can't picture you meowing to the tune of the jingle," Lorelai said, shaking her head.

"Probably because I don't know the jingle. And because I'm not crazy."

"You're crazy about me," Lorelai said in a sing-songy voice. "You love me. You want to date me, you think I'm sexy… okay, stopping the Miss Congeniality rant, because we've already gone way farther than that anyway."

Luke looked at Lorelai. "So Babette came by my house in a rush one day. I was still asleep. That's how early it was."

_"Luke! Luuke!" Babette shrieked, running down the street._

Luke wasn't even fully awake yet. He heard his name being called and someone banging on his front door. This was either an emergency or the craziness of the town coming to fruition. He slowly rolled out of bed and opened the door. "What's wrong, Babette?" Luke asked, still groggy.

"Did I wake you, doll? I'm so sorry. I just really need a cat sitter for today. I have a meetin' in Waterbury and my regular sitter cancelled on me. You're a dependable, trustworthy guy, Luke, would you please take Sugarplum for the day? I promise you that I'll compensate you properly," Babette begged.

"Babette, I really…"

"I promise, I'll be the first one in that new diner of yours when it opens, drinkin' some coffee and eatin' until I can't eat another bite. Please, Luke?"

"Babette, while that's really nice of you, I can't…"

Babette straightened up. "Luke, you've always, always been there for everyone in the town when they've needed it, within reason of course, but you're here now, and I need ya. Please?"

She gently handed the kitten over to Luke, who brought it out at arm's length to hand it back to Babette. But he saw the stressed look on Babette's face and then looked down at the kitten, squirming to get out of Luke's hands. "Fine," Luke consented.

"Oh, Luke, you're an angel! I owe you big. Here's the care instructions, the food, the toys, and her favorite blanket to sleep on. Thank you so much, goodbye!" Babette said, running down the street once more.

Luke put the kitten down and shut the door. He put his hand on the doorframe and leaned his head against it, trying to comprehend what he had just agreed to. He sighed, realizing that he was now in charge of what was essentially Babette's child. That cat was so small, and his feet were huge… he could easily step on it. He turned and looked at the cat, who stared back at him and let out a small meow. "What are you looking at?" Luke asked.

The cat followed him into the kitchen, meowing again. "Here, here's some food, maybe then you'll stop making that awful noise," Luke said, scooping some food onto a plate and putting it in front of the kitten.

Sugarplum, however, didn't pay attention to the food, and rubbed on Luke's foot, meowing once again. Luke rolled his eyes. "Here we go," he muttered under his breath as the cat began to play with his pajama pants. 

And yet again, Lorelai couldn't stop laughing. "Luke. You baby sat Babette's cat?"

"I did it for Babette. She was in a bind, she needed me… I tried to help her as best I could. You know how it is. You've gotten roped into things you weren't exactly thrilled about getting roped into," Luke replied.

Lorelai smiled. "I know. It's part of the reason you're so adorable, you'd do anything for anyone. It's very charming."

"Well, I'm glad you think so, because that day with Babette's cat was torture. It was almost worse than I imagined it to be," Luke grumbled.

"So was there ever a time when Babette had two cats? Or was she one of those 'only child' households?" Lorelai asked.

Luke took off his cap, scratching his head. "Well, there was a time I can remember when she had a cat that was pregnant, and she didn't know until all the kittens were born."

"I'm surprised she didn't know, isn't she this 'cat expert' or even a 'cat whisperer' or something?" Lorelai asked, using air quotes around the proper words.

Luke shrugged. "Like I'd know something like that. You're asking me because?"

"Apparently you know a lot more about Babette and the rest of this town than I do. Not to mention you know a lot about a whole bunch of different stuff, too. Maybe you know if the chicken or the egg came first. Do you know if the chicken or the egg came first? Rory and I have been having intense debates over that for awhile now, and I was wondering if you had a say in the matter," Lorelai mused.

"I know that I cook the eggs which come from chickens. Other than that I have no insight for you. Sorry to burst your bubble," Luke deadpanned.

Lorelai sighed. "That's okay. Ending random tangent number 5,000 for the day. Back to Babette's cat that was preggers and she didn't know. Imagine if I went like that, not telling anyone I was pregnant and suddenly bringing Rory home?" Lorelai saw Luke's body language change, and she knew he was agitated. "Sorry. Rant number 5,001 for the day is over now. So now we talk about Babette's pregnant cat."

"This was… probably a year or so before you moved into the house. She came to the diner, freaking out and not knowing what to do with all the cats."

_Babette came running into the diner, her arms flailing in the air. "It's a boy! And a girl, and a boy, and a boy, and a girl and a boy!"_

"Babette, did you or someone you know have sextuplets?" Kirk asked.

"Kirk, let's be serious for a second. If I just had sextuplets would I be here right now?" Babette shot back.

Kirk shrugged. "Mother says that some women recover more quickly than other women do after they give birth. I'm not a doctor, so I'm not quite sure how you'd recover, but you look fantastic to me."

"It's Lily! She was pregnant the entire time and me and Morey had no idea! I just thought she was gettin' fat, I didn't think she could have had babies! I just walked in the house today, lookin' for her, and all of a sudden, Wham!" Babette said, clapping her hands together for effect.

"George Michael was in your living room?" Kirk asked, his eyebrows raised.

Babette sighed. "No, Kirk, not Wham as in the band, wham as in 'bada bing' or 'ta da' or 'dun dun dun'."

"Your sound effects are amazing, Babette, we should cast you in something in the future," Miss Patty interjected.

Babette rolled her eyes. "I think people are missing the point here. My cat just had six kittens!"

"Congratulations, Babette. Does that make you a grandmother?" Luke asked, attempting to be nice so Babette would eventually stop harassing his paying customers.

"Gee, ya know, I guess it does. If anyone wants to have one of my grandchildren, stop by and take a look. When they're old enough, you can have 'em. Lily's enough for me to handle," Babette explained.

"You're giving away your grandchildren? I'm really confused," Kirk said. "And your 'having the grandchildren' comment could be construed in a different manner… okay, I'm even more confused than I thought I was to begin with."

"You're not the only one," Gypsy said, suddenly inserting herself in the conversation. 

Luke sighed. "And that was the day Babette became a grandmother."

"Didn't she have her pets fixed? Or did Bob Barker not teach her anything? You know, at the end of 'the Price is Right' he used to say 'have your pets spayed or neutered'?" Lorelai asked.

He shrugged, wrapping his arm around her. "I'm not sure. But apparently she didn't, because this cat had sextuplets. I think I remember her saying something about the shelter records being wrong, and Lily got out and fell in love with the neighbor's cat."

Lorelai giggled. "Poor cat. Poor Babette! There is no way I could ever have that many kids. Ever. This one is already enough. But maybe one more, or two, after this one. That would definitely be it, though."

"How about we get through this one first, and re-evaluate after that?" Luke suggested.

Lorelai put her hand on her stomach. "Good idea," she said with a smile.


	9. Mia Halloway

**Mia Halloway **

Lorelai smiled and turned to Luke when she saw who was on the next page. "Aww," she said, looking at the pictures of Mia. "It's Mia!"

"This is obviously Mia's page. It was the last one my mom started before she passed. She never finished it, but I can't seem to, either. I guess it's just that my mom and Mia were so close, I'd rather not mess with it. You know?"

Lorelai nodded in understanding. "I know. I'd do exactly the same thing."

"Do you and Rory still talk to Mia?" Luke asked.

Lorelai smiled. "We call her once a month, and we miss her terribly. We e mail a lot, though, because Mia finally set up an e mail account. She's no longer unreachable."

"That's nice," Luke said.

"It really is nice," Lorelai agreed.

"And so this is Mia's page. That was my mom and Mia, when I was little. See me? There's the closest to a baby picture of me you're going to find," Luke insisted.

She pulled the album closer to her, using her belly to prop it up so she could get a better look. She turned to Luke and smiled. "Aww! You were so adorable!" she said, pointing to the picture of Luke, sitting on Amy's lap while Amy and Mia talked.

"Lorelai," Luke said, rolling his eyes.

Lorelai snorted. "Hey. That's a compliment. If you learn nothing else while you're married to me, let it be that you need to be able to take a compliment."

"You have it all planned out, don't you?" Luke asked.

"Oh, yeah. I know everything that I'm going to teach you. You just haven't heard much of my evil master plan yet," Lorelai teased.

He pointed to the picture. "Do you want to hear a story, or not?"

"Story. Please. Thanks."

"My mom and Mia were best friends since grade school. Mia was rather disorganized, and a little scatterbrained. My mom was the most organized person you would ever meet, and she kept Mia in line," Luke explained.

_Mia sat next to Amy on the park bench. "Hey, there, stranger!" she said, tapping Amy on the shoulder._

"Mia! Hi, how are you?" Amy asked, giving Mia a hug.

Mia shrugged. "Same old, same old. You know how it goes. But what about you, Amy, where have you been? You've been kind of a ghost lately, everyone's been wondering where the heck you've been!"

Amy nodded. "And why does that not surprise me? No, Luke just came down with a nasty cold, and I took care of him for awhile. I figured some fresh air would do him a little good today, after being cooped up in the house for a week. He seems to be doing much better, so that's a good sign. How's the inn?"

"It's doing really well. The Dooses rented a few rooms for next week, and I think we have a really good holiday season booked," Mia said enthusiastically.

"And how's John?" Amy asked. "Has he adjusted to the afternoon kindergarten okay?"

"Well," Mia started, letting out a sigh, "apparently the teacher wants to have a conference with me about his ability to share. He shares just fine with Luke, but no, this teacher thinks he's an uncivilized banshee because he won't share his cubby with the kids across the hall, or something to that effect. Jeez."

Amy laughed. "Well, then, I guess we'll have to give him a little talking to, then, won't we?"

Mia nodded. "I guess so. I feel bad, you know? I've been spending so much time at the inn lately, it's been really hard on him, apparently."

"It's not your fault, Mia. You've been doing fine. He's welcome at our house anytime, just like you are," Amy insisted.

"Even with baby Lizzie around?" Mia asked.

"Of course. She's oblivious to anything but what she wants, anyway," Amy teased.

Mia hugged Amy. "You're an amazing friend, Amy. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Well, I suppose you would have always been without crayons in grade school, a sweater in middle school, and makeup in high school," Amy teased.

Mia laughed. "Ah, Amy, why did you always have to be the one with the extra sweater? Or crayons or makeup?"

Amy shrugged. "In case I got really, really cold? Or I wanted to color a lot, or give someone a new look?"

"You were always the practical one, thinking ahead and all that. Totally the opposite of me. I never remember anything. It's a wonder I can get John to school every day. I am such a scatterbrained, disorganized person that I am surprised I haven't lost John yet," Mia teased.

"You are fine, Mia. You've done a fantastic job since you took over the inn, you have to be organized there," Amy pointed out.

"_Amy Danes, you have no idea how much better that just made me feel. Just another reason to keep you around, it's an ego boost," Mia teased._

"_Yes, Mia Halloway, that works for me. Wow, we mesh well, then, don't we?" Amy asked with a smile._

"We sure do. Give Bill and Lizzie a kiss for me. I've got to get John from school," Mia said after taking a glance at her watch. "And thanks."

_Amy raised her eyebrows. "For what? I just talked to you!"_

"_For being such a great friend," Mia insisted._

Amy winked at Mia. "Back at you, Mia." 

Lorelai smiled. "Now I see why Mia loves you so much. You're her best friend's son. That's really nice that they knew each other… I'm going to have to ask Mia for some stories. I'm sure you'd like to hear some."

"Yeah, that would be nice. And I know Mia would share stories, too. Mia's a great lady, she's been really good to me over the years. And she makes me feel just a little closer to my mom."

"Understandable. Definitely. Mia's like a mom to me, too," Lorelai agreed.

Luke sighed. "From what I remember, she was talking about you and Rory all the time since you came to Stars Hollow, but the reason I didn't connect it was because you were someone new every day. One day, you were a maid, the next, you were head maid, and before I made the connection, you were one of the managers. I can remember her mentioning you a few times, but because she never mentioned you by name, I didn't really pay attention. It's funny that she kept mentioning you to me, and I just really didn't listen."

"What did she say?"

Luke was surprised that Lorelai didn't make a comment about Luke's ability (or inability) to make the connection. "Nothing special, just 'oh, there's a girl at the inn…' or 'an employee of mine'. That stuff."

Lorelai sighed. "Come on! I know she mentioned more than THAT. Lukey!"

"Would you stop calling me that, please?" Luke asked, rather calmly.

Lorelai giggled, taking Luke's hand. "I can use it to manipulate. I'll stop if you tell me a story about Mia!"

"What story?"

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear with her free hand. She thought for a moment and finally came up with an answer. "Well, Lukey, I think you should tell me about a time Mia talked about me in front of you!"

"Fine," Luke consented, taking Lorelai's hand. "And please don't call me that?"

She winked at him. "See what the power of a pet name does? I'm good at this," she said, readjusting a pillow behind her. 

Luke sighed. "Mia came into the diner one day. Actually it was the day we met." 

"_Lucas!" Mia said as she caught a glimpse of Luke, helping a customer at the counter._

Luke turned to look at Mia. "Hi, Mia, I'll be with you in a second," he said, giving her a wave.

Mia sat at the table closest to the window and waited for Luke to finish while she looked at her date book. As Luke walked over, Mia put her date book back into her purse. "Lucas, how are you?" she asked, opening her arms for a hug.

"I'm doing well, Mia, how are you?" Luke replied, giving Mia a hug.

Mia nodded. "Fantastic," she said as she sat down.

"Can I get you some coffee?" Luke asked.

"Sure, word on the street is that it is better than chocolate. That's pretty good, you know, Lucas."

Luke poured Mia a cup of coffee. "Better than chocolate? I guess that must be a good thing."

Mia took a sip of her coffee and placed the mug down. "Most definitely. The associate manager of the inn adores your coffee, and she's only had one cup. She's been in withdrawal since she stopped by this morning."

"She was here this morning?" Luke asked, trying to remember the women who came in that morning and ordered coffee. It suddenly struck him. He knew exactly who she was talking about. "I think I know who you might be talking about… she's uh, tall, brunette… crazy?"

Mia nodded. "You got her. Lorelai Gilmore. She's one of the sweetest girls you'll ever meet, Luke, so you treat her nicely unless you want to get it from me. She's got a little girl, a spitting image of her, and she's named Lorelai as well. But, that's another story for another time."

"That could be potentially confusing, having the same name," Luke mused.

"Everyone calls her daughter Rory. Rory just turned eleven. Lorelai and Rory have had it rough for awhile, Lorelai got pregnant at sixteen and moved here at seventeen. They don't come by much money, so… just be sure to treat them well, all right?" Mia insisted. "They need a strong male figure in their lives. Rory's dad isn't around much, at all, and I can remember many a tear being shed over these years about him not being there for Rory. So, what I'm trying to say is, when they come back, develop a bond of some sort, just look after them, all right?"

Luke nodded. "Yeah, sure. Is that the reason you came here, to talk about… Lorelai?"

Mia shook her head. "Your offering of coffee set off a spark in my head. I just thought I'd give you a heads up that she's bringing Rory in tonight. They're going to give you a lot of revenue, I'm sure. They're… they have very healthy appetites. They'll be regulars, I'm positive they will. The conversation was just a result of your offer."

"So they'll be back?" he asked.

_She nodded. "Frequently, I'd put money down that they'd come by once a day."_

"_Thanks for the warning," Luke replied with a chuckle._

Mia pointed at Luke. "Now, Lucas, I mean it, be nice to them."

"I will, I promise," Luke said, raising his hands in surrender. "I know you'd let me have it if I wasn't."

"Me and your mother, don't doubt it," Mia warned, in a more joking tone.

"_Not a chance," Luke replied._

_Mia winked at him. "You'll like Lorelai. I know it. I have a feeling you two will be really close after you get to know her better. And you'll adore Rory. She's a very intelligent young lady. You'll love the two of them."_

"_Well, they sound… very nice," Luke replied, thinking back to the piece of newspaper he placed in his wallet._

"_They're more than nice. They're absolutely wonderful people. Both of them are an absolute joy to have in my life. Now, I know that you wouldn't use those exact words, because you have an image to maintain," Mia teased, "but I know you'll like them. Trust me on this one, Lucas. They'll mean something to you one day."_

Lorelai locked her fingers together and straightened up. "What a nice story! Mia was the little birdie that told you how amazing I was! And she knew all along that we'd be perfect for each other, how fantastic is that?"

"Don't let your ego get too big there," Luke teased.

"Too late," Lorelai replied, "it's already ginormous."

"Ginormous?" Luke repeated.

She sighed again. "Seriously, Luke, ginormous is a combination of giant plus enormous. It's not that hard to comprehend."

"I got it, I just never heard you say it before. Is that the new saying or something?" he asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Lorelai said, raising her eyebrows. "So Mia knew that you'd have the hots for me before you even knew. Isn't that nice?"

Luke rolled his eyes. "Please. She didn't say that I'd fall in love with you, she said you'd mean something to me, and you did."

"Well, that's so sweet of you, Luke," Lorelai said. "You always meant a lot to me, too."

"Thanks," Luke said.

"Who's next? Because I'm sure they mean a lot to you, too. Would you like to share that with me?"

Luke nodded. "Go ahead and turn the page."


	10. Taylor Doose

**Taylor Doose **

Luke knew it was obvious that Lorelai couldn't help but mock the next array of pictures in the album. Pointing at the picture of Taylor before his hair turned gray, still in a cardigan sweater with the same expression he wore in his face, she laughed until her face hurt from smiling so much. She sighed. "Oh, these pictures get funnier and funnier every time you turn the page!" she said, wiping a tear from her eye.

"That was Taylor. About 20 years ago."

Lorelai gasped. "No! That's hysterical. Oy, I can't even imagine what Taylor was like twenty years ago."

"Sure you can. Actually, you probably wouldn't have to, because he's exactly the same as he was twenty years ago," Luke mused. "Still crazy, just less… old."

"Really? I should have guessed. It IS Taylor, after all. You're right, I should have known that," Lorelai replied.

Luke nodded, watching Lorelai as she analyzed the pictures of Taylor. He remembered the exact town meeting that one of them was taken at. He made a mental note to tell that story to Lorelai. She looked up at Luke and smiled.

"You take nice pictures," she said.

"I don't take all of them. I've had some help on a few," Luke said, not mentioning any names.

Lorelai nodded. "I see. What's this one of?" she asked, pointing to a picture of Taylor holding a gavel with a 'death grip'.

"Town meeting," Luke replied, remembering the story he'd thought about. "Taylor's first year as town selectman. The other town selectman was… Neil. Neil passed away, and Taylor was his right hand man, and he took over. I don't even know what the hell that means, town selectman. Maybe if I knew what he did, I would be able to get why he's so insane at the town meetings. Ugh."

"It's beyond me," Lorelai added. "Anyway, you tell your story. I'm going to close my eyes and listen. I'm not falling asleep, I promise. I'm just imagining. I am visualizing the setting. Having an imagination helps the brain stay young, and functioning, or so I hear."

Luke gave her an 'I doubt it' look, and kissed her forehead. "We can continue this tomorrow, if you want. It's still going to be here. The album won't disappear."

She shook her head. "No, no, keep going. I need to hear a 'Taylor Doose being crazy at a town meeting' story, please?" she asked, letting out a sigh and closing her eyes.

"Okay, if you're sure. You do experience Taylor Doose every day, you know."

"I'm sure. Go on," she pressed, pointing to the album.

"Well, it was that time of year when the people look for the Christmas tree for Rockefeller Center, or wherever it is in New York that they do the giant tree lighting thing," Luke started.

"That's always a really pretty tree," Lorelai interjected.

Luke shrugged. "But Taylor was determined that Stars Hollow should be considered in the selection of this tree."

_"Order, order! Everyone settle down," Taylor commanded._

"Are we done yet?" Andrew asked. "I have places to go."

Babette nodded. "Morey and I need to celebrate our anniversary, and we've got reservations at Sniffy's."

The town oohed and aahed at Babette's revelation. Miss Patty raised her eyebrows. "Just tell Buddy and Maisy that you were at the meeting. Besides, you two have all night to celebrate," Miss Patty said with a wink.

_Babette elbowed Morey and pointed at Miss Patty. "You're good, Patty."_

"Now that's enough, everyone. I could write you up for foul language, Patty, but I choose to give you a verbal warning instead. Only because I don't have a pen," Taylor insisted.

Kirk raised his hand. "Excuse me, Taylor? I have a pen," he said, offering the pen to Taylor.

"That won't be necessary, Kirk. And does your mother know you're here? It's past your curfew," Taylor pointed out.

_  
"But I fished it out of my pen protector just for you. Doesn't that count for anything?" Kirk protested. "Yes, mother knows I'm here. As I am almost at eligible voting age, I have beseeched her to become more involved in the politics of Stars Hollow, our county, and the state of Connecticut."_

"_What about the rest of the country, Kirk?" Luke grumbled._

_Kirk shrugged. "Well, right now that's a rather large task to take on while finals are impending. It wasn't that long ago that you were a high school student, Luke, I would think that you would sympathize with your comrades, especially as a veteran."_

"_Thinking of going to war, Kirk? Lots of military talk coming from you, there," Mia insisted._

Taylor sighed. "Can we please move on with this meeting? Raise your hand if you don't care about Kirk's political affiliations."

The entire room, with the exception of Kirk, raised their hands. "Motion to proceed with the meeting so we can get the hell out of here is seconded," Luke said, agitated.

Babette chuckled. "Wow, mark this day on your calendars. Luke agreein' with Taylor is a day to remember!"

"I have a pen if someone needs it," Kirk added.

"Can we please get on with this?" Luke asked, crossing his arms.

Taylor banged his gavel on the podium. "This meeting WILL come to ORDER. Now, the item on the agenda tonight is the Christmas tree in New York."

"What's that got to do with Stars Hollow, Taylor? I have a diner to run," Luke insisted. "And the rest of us have things to do, however disgusting they may be."

Taylor huffed. "I want the tree they pick to be from nowhere else but good old Stars Hollow, Connecticut. That means we need help from each and every one of you to make that happen. Now I'm thinking that we can share watering duties and fertilizing duties as town citizens, and I also hope that each and every one of you will participate. I've heard that talking to plants gives them the carbon dioxide that they need, so that helps them grow faster. So, if we make a schedule to talk to the tree…"

"This idea is getting more and more ridiculous by the minute, Taylor. You really think that the committee will actually go to Stars Hollow in search of this tree? Most people on this planet haven't even heard of Stars Hollow, and the people that have are insane. It's not on the map, they're not coming, I refuse to talk to the tree. Now I'm leaving," Luke insisted, getting up from his chair.

Taylor rolled his eyes. "If that's the way you want it, Luke. The tree would be chosen off of your property, but if you don't want to be paid millions and have the honor of being recognized for the beautiful foliage on your property, that's fine with me. We'll choose one off of someone else's land. Just don't expect any favors when the camera crews come by."

"Taylor. Listen. My lips are moving, but apparently no one can hear what I'm saying. I. Don't. Care. About. A. Stupid. Tree."

"Luke, I'm begging you to reconsider," Taylor said.

"No," Luke replied, without turning to look at Taylor, and left. 

"_If you need someone to take an official record of this meeting, I will, I have a pen," Kirk offered._

Lorelai let out the softest chuckle. "That was funny," she said sleepily.

Luke brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "I told you that we could do this tomorrow. Remember? Tomorrow's do nothing day," he whispered.

"Do nothing day, yay!" Lorelai said, her eyes fluttering open. "But I want to finish this tonight, so we really can do nothing tomorrow," she reasoned.

"All right. We can stop anytime. I know you've had a long day."

"Aren't you just the most thoughtful man I've ever met?" she said, grinning.

Luke turned his attention once again to Lorelai. "So you know how Jackson ran for Town Selectman that one time?"

She nodded. "I do," she replied.

"Taylor challenged me to run against him one year."

Lorelai stretched out her arms. "Really?" she asked, her eyes wide with surprise.

"Really. He was serious, too. He had that 'I'm serious' look on his face that usually scares everyone."

"Tell me more, tell me more, like does he have a car?" she teased.

Luke sighed. "And I thought you were sleepy," he said, giving her a kiss.

"I'm an excellent actress, I'm just undiscovered," Lorelai replied, pulling herself up into a more comfortable position. "Anyway, so Taylor challenged you. When was this?"

Luke cleared his throat. "Uh, you were in… Paris, I think."

"Oh," Lorelai replied, looking down at her hands. "Right, uh, I was in Paris. Never mind."

He took her hand, letting her know that he had moved past what Lorelai had done before. "We were at the town meeting. He had yet another stupid idea, and I didn't like it." 

"Aren't the majority of his ideas stupid?" Lorelai asked.

Luke shrugged. "Yeah, yeah, you have a point there. The majority of the ideas are stupid, but this idea brought stupid to a whole new level. He wanted to make this big birthday party for everyone, so people didn't have to remember everyone's birthdays."

"That's stupid," Lorelai replied.

"Yeah, it is."

"_Everyone settle down now, this meeting has come to order," Taylor demanded. The town took their seats and Taylor waited for them to be quiet._

"_Can we make this quick, Taylor?" Zach asked. "I have to go to band practice."_

"_You and Brian are the majority of the band, Zach, half of it, to be precise, and the rest of the band will wait for you," Taylor insisted._

_Brian stood up. "Actually, Taylor, we're two thirds of the band. Lane is taking a temporary leave of absence."_

"_Dude, you just helped him make his point," Zach said, pulling Brian into a seat. _

"_Okay, so we have a few things on the agenda tonight. The first is that the…"_

_Babette rolled her eyes. "Taylor, let's get to the important stuff, we're startin' to have two town meetings in a week, and that's just crazy! We have lives, ya know."_

"_If you're so concerned about the welfare of the town, you'd just let us do our jobs," Luke agreed._

"_Fine, we'll cut to the chase. We have a new idea that's going to revolutionize the way we celebrate birthdays in this town," Taylor insisted._

_Luke crossed his arms. "Really? What could this be?" he asked, under his breath._

_"I plan to give this town one big birthday party," Taylor insisted._

Miss Patty scrunched up her nose. "A birthday party? For Stars Hollow, the actual town of Stars Hollow? Isn't that what Founders Day is for?"

"No, Patty, it's a birthday party for the town's residents! There are simply just too many birthdays for us to celebrate individually. So, we pick a date that has no affiliation to anyone's birth, and there you have it. That's the Big Stars Hollow Birthday Party!" Taylor said, gesturing wildly with his arms as he spoke.

"Dude, Taylor, that's sketchy," Zach insisted.

"Well, if you think it's so 'sketchy,' you tell me when every person's birthday in this town is. And what you got them for their birthday last year," Taylor pressed.

Zach slumped down in his seat, a defeated look on his face.

"Taylor, birthdays are birthdays for a reason. They're there to pay attention to that person on THEIR birthday. People like getting recognized, separate from other people, on THEIR birthday. Not with everyone else. If you tell me that you don't like getting recognized every year, then you're lying through your teeth. And knowing you, you're going to put any sort of other birthday party as banned in the town bylaws. When Sookie's kids, or Lane's kids, or anyone else's kids grow up and can't have a birthday party for their birthday, and they're upset, what are you going to tell them? Oh, there's no need for a birthday party, you'll have one in five months with everyone else in the whole damn town! Or, better yet, I'll just tell them that Taylor Doose is a power hungry idiot!" Luke ranted, his face red with anger.

Taylor rolled his eyes. "If you're so against this, Luke, than you should run against me in the next election."

"I'm not running against you, Taylor. I own and run a diner. I don't have time for this. And besides, if I ran, it would mean that I actually care about what you say, and NEWS FLASH, I don't. So any sort of plan that involves me being town selectman, running for town selectman, or going anywhere near the election for town selectman, is out of the question."

Brian leaned over to Zach. "Dude, that was totally sick."

Zach shook his head. "No, dude, the new word for 'sick' is 'swick'. It's 'sweet' and 'sick' together. Both words for cool, but both mushed together. Like leftovers."

Luke stormed angrily out of the meeting and Zach and Brian high fived each other. 

"_That was the swickest town meeting I've ever been to," Brian said, watching as Luke opened the door and exited the building._

Luke looked over at Lorelai, ensuring that she wasn't asleep. "You awake?"

"Mmhm. Swick," she replied.

"You didn't get a word of that. Seriously, go to sleep. We can continue this tomorrow, on our do nothing day," Luke insisted.

"Do nothing day. We have to do stuff. Rory's coming, finish the album… stuff."

Luke chuckled. "You're funny when you're incoherent. Go to sleep. We'll finish this in the morning."

When Lorelai gave no response, Luke looked over at her and saw that she was sleeping. He gently pulled the blankets up over her and kissed her forehead. He'd finish the album in the morning. He would get to share it with Rory as well. After all, everyone in the album was her family, too. He turned off the light and crawled into bed beside Lorelai, looking forward to sharing the next pages of the album with both his wife and his step daughter.


	11. Maisy and Buddy

**Maisy and Buddy**

Luke woke up early the next morning, deciding to make chocolate chip pancakes for Lorelai to have for breakfast. He decided that it would be a nice sort of 'thank you' gift for sitting and listening to, let alone being interested in, the stories of his family and the town of Stars Hollow. And, besides, she deserved a junk food treat after how well she'd done lately. She'd significantly lightened up on the coffee intake, much to Luke's surprise, so he hoped the pancakes would be seen as a compromise that was to Lorelai's liking.

The smell of chocolate must have really motivated Lorelai, because she came down the stairs not long after Luke started to make the pancakes. She seated herself at the table, squinting through her glasses at her husband.

"I'm making pancakes," Luke replied, planting a kiss on the top of Lorelai's head.

"And that makes me so incredibly happy," Lorelai said in her morning voice.

Luke smiled. "Good. Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah. Very well. So incredibly well. I slept so well, that it was like the imagined part of the NyQuill commercials sleep."

"You seemed really tired last night," Luke offered. "I just wanted to make sure that you slept okay."

Lorelai sighed. "I slept fine, Luke, and thank you for covering me up and making sure I was perfectly comfortable last night. I felt awful, Luke, waking up this morning and seeing the album on your night table. I felt like a terrible person. I made you sit through all those rules! In one sitting!"

"It happened to be early afternoon then, so it makes sense that I wasn't tired. And I wasn't pregnant," he pointed out, flipping a pancake.

Lorelai giggled. "You weren't, were you? You're a silly boy."

"Here we go," Luke muttered, putting Lorelai's pancakes on a plate. He walked over to the table, and placed the plate of pancakes in front of Lorelai.

Lorelai took the plate and raised it so she could inhale the smell of the pancakes. "To what do I owe this fantastic feast?" she asked. "And to what do I owe the use of alliteration?"

"Well, I figured that you deserved some pancakes. And plus, it's celebratory. Rory's coming home today," Luke replied.

Her eyes widened as she shoved a bite of the pancake in her mouth. "That's right! She's coming at ten!"

"At night?"

"In the morning. She had an interview with the Courant. The online magazine wanted to transfer her to Hilary, and she and Hilary aren't very tight,"

Luke just stared at Lorelai, his confusion evident. "She knows Hilary Clinton? This is making no sense at all."

Lorelai nodded. "We had her over for a sleepover once, and I decided that her home life with Bill wasn't a very good influence on Rory, so she's not allowed over anymore. As a mom, I took the initiative and decided to teach Rory good morals, and Hilary wasn't much of a model of those morals I was looking for in a friend of hers. That's when we found Lane."

Luke just continued to stare at Lorelai, still confused.

She sighed. "She used to love Hilary Clinton. She used to admire her very much. Until an admissions board for a college told her indirectly not to write about Hilary for a college essay, that is. They visited Chilton, and then Rory was listening to what they had to say, and she came home, panicked that she did everything that they supposedly told her not to do when applying for college. Rory has an aversion to talking or writing about Hilary now. Plus, she's been following Obama for so long, it's just not right for her to switch, there could be a bias. She wants to move close to home, and you know I'm not going to stop her. This could be really exciting, Luke!"

"When did you find this out?" Luke asked.

"I'll tell you if you tell me where you learned to make these amazing pancakes!"

Luke nodded, and went upstairs to get the album he'd been showing Lorelai. He brought the album into the kitchen, sat down at the table, and opened to the page he was looking for. "Maisy taught me to make them."

Lorelai smiled when she saw who was on the page he opened to. "Maisy and Buddy! Aw, they're just so adorable. That's where you learned to make pancakes?"

"After my mom passed away, my dad needed to go to Woodbridge for the night, to have a meeting with somebody. I don't really remember the reason. So, he left me and Liz with Buddy and Maisy."

As Luke began to tell the story, Rory burst into the door. "Where is my fantastic family that makes me use alliteration?"

Lorelai stopped what she was doing and got up from her chair. "See, alliteration is really important here. Rory!"

Rory ran into the kitchen and dropped her bags on the floor. She gave her mom a hug. "I'm so happy to be home! Finally. I don't have to go anywhere for a long, long time."

"Luke, get her coffee, and some pancakes, stat, please!" Lorelai insisted, looking at Luke.

"Mom. Since when do you say 'stat' and 'please' in the same sentence? That's pretty much impossible," Rory reasoned, walking over to give Luke a hug. "She's insane. What happened to her while I was gone?"

"Tell me something I don't know," Luke muttered. "And I think she got crazier after you left. The sane person she relied on her whole life decided not to stay around."

Rory smiled. "You're funny. And you know, you asked me to tell you something that you didn't know? Well, I will."

Lorelai smiled. "You can tell him about 'The Office'. He hates that show. He probably knows nothing about it."

"I don't want to hear about 'The Office'," Luke protested.

"Fine. Then tell him about that big trade those baseball people made today," Lorelai insisted.

Rory rolled her eyes. "Luke's the one that told ME that."

"Well, then, tell him something he doesn't know already! Jeez, Rory, do what he says! He makes your food," Lorelai teased.

Rory straightened up and took a deep breath. "All right, then, I will. Mom, Luke, I am the Hartford Courant's new political beat writer!"

Luke stood back and watched the reaction Lorelai gave to Rory's news. As Lorelai pulled Rory in for another hug, Luke was thrilled to see Lorelai so happy. He knew that Lorelai would be thrilled to have Rory nearby. And he was happy, too.

"Congratulations, Rory," Luke said, giving her a hug and ushering her to the table. "How about a celebratory batch of chocolate chip pancakes?"

"That Buddy and Maisy taught him to make," Lorelai said, grabbing the album.

Rory nodded. "Sure, Luke." She turned her attention to the album Lorelai held in her hands. "'The Danes Family Album'? Wow, is this a photo album with pictures of your family, Luke?"

"This is why my little girl's a reporter, she asks just the right questions. This is pretty much everyone in the town, who is Luke's family by extension, plus Luke's REAL family. Quick recap. This is Luke's dad, Luke's mom, Liz, Luke's Uncle Louie… have you met this guy? His name is Jess," Lorelai teased.

"I believe we've met," Rory mused, playing along with her mother.

"And this is… Miss Patty, Babette, Mia, and Taylor! They're town inhabitants that make the rest of us laugh. Or, they're surrogate grandmothers or mothers who guide you through a hard time in your life," Lorelai explained.

"Great pictures you have here," Rory said, looking at Luke.

"His mom started the album and he finished. Cool, huh? He's told me some excellent stories, which he should share with you at another point, and now we're on Buddy and Maisy. Setting the scene? Luke is little, he's at Buddy and Maisy's house, learning how to make these chocolate chip pancakes that give his future wife nourishment to make it through the day. Take it away, Luke!" Lorelai said enthusiastically, taking a bite of her pancakes.

Rory giggled. "I'm intrigued. Yes, Luke, please, go on!"

"Well, I was kind of bored, Liz was really bored, so Maisy decided that she wanted to keep us entertained. Probably because she hated it when Liz whined about how bored she was," Luke started. "So she found something for us to do."

_"Maisy, I'm hungry," Liz complained, her legs hanging over the arm of the couch and her head on the seat._

"Well, Lizzie, how'd you like to help me make dinner?" Maisy asked. "Luke, you can help as well."

"Sure," Luke replied, putting down his homework and walking over to the counter.

Maisy smiled. "Lizzie? You coming to help?"

Liz sat up. "I'm not really a cooker."

"A chef," Maisy corrected. "You're not really much of a chef. And it's okay, your brother isn't a chef, either. But we can teach you to make dinner."

"Can we make pancakes? Please?" Liz begged.

Maisy smiled. "Sure. Breakfast for dinner sounds good on a night like this. Luke, let's get the chocolate chips from the pantry. Lizzie, I need you to get me a pan from under the sink. Be careful with them, though. Don't hurt yourself."

"Okay!" Liz said, complying with Maisy's request.

Luke got the chocolate chips and watched carefully as Maisy made the pancake batter. He made a mental note of every step, trying his hardest to remember what ingredient went in at what time and how much of it there needed to be. He knew he was going to want to make them again, and he couldn't forget how, or else there would be no pancakes.

"Wow, Luke, you're concentrating awfully hard, there," Maisy said, putting her hand on his shoulder.

"I'm trying to remember how to make them for next time," Luke replied.

Maisy chuckled. "I'll write it down for you. Grab a plate for me. You won't need to remember a thing, you'll have it right there for when you want to make them again," she said, flipping the pancake that was almost finished.

Luke grabbed a plate and Maisy plopped the pancake on it. He handed the plate to Liz, who brought it into the living room. The second pancake was finished and Luke took his first bite of something he'd actually cooked himself. He liked this cooking thing. And he wasn't bad at it at all.

Rory squealed. "Aw, Luke, that's so cute! That was a nice story. I like hearing about your past and your family. It makes me feel… I don't know, included somehow."

"Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed it."

Lorelai pouted. "I noticed that Maisy was the only one in that story…"

Luke rolled his eyes. "Uh, that's because there was a second story. Isn't there always more than one? Knowing you, there's no way you'd be satisfied with just one story."

"Well, excuse me!" Lorelai said sarcastically, holding her head high and pretending to be offended by Luke's comment.

Luke gave Rory a plate of pancakes and joined the two at the table. "Buddy was the one who I used to like to watch the Red Sox with."

"Oh, great, another story I'll know nothing about," Lorelai said with a roll of her eyes.

Rory shook her head. "Remember how nice Luke was to you, after 43 rules? Return the favor, missy."

Lorelai pouted. "Fine. I'll be nice. Go ahead."

Luke continued. "But he was the one who used to come to my track and field meets. See, my dad was a baseball guy, and he was getting sicker as I got older, so he would come to the occasional baseball game to get his mind off of things and get out a little. But he didn't understand track. When I hurt my elbow pitching my junior year, I didn't really want to upset my dad, but I wasn't really sure which sport I wanted to play. I could have played first base, my coach said so, but I chose track. I didn't need to hurt my elbow again, and running wasn't so bad. I didn't mind it that much, and grew to like it after awhile."

Rory looked at Lorelai. "Is this going to lead into the 'Butch' story? Or the picture of him in his uniform you so vividly described to me that one day?"

"I'll tell you that one after. And I'm sure there's a picture of Luke in those shorts in here. Okay, Luke, continue," Lorelai said, giggling.

"I remember my last meet," Luke recalled. "We hadn't won a meet all year, and I really wanted to win my last one before I graduated."

_"Hi, there, Luke," Buddy said, extending his hand to offer Luke a handshake._

"Buddy, how are you?" Luke asked, returning the gesture.

He smiled. "I'm doing just fine. I see they put a plaque up in the gym with your name on it. Congratulations. I didn't know you'd run that much this season."

"Neither did I," Luke confessed, crouching down to tie his shoe. "I tend to focus more on the team's achievements."

Buddy smiled. "That's because you're a team player, Luke, you're not looking out for your own personal success. You know, your dad's really proud of you, Luke. And so am I. You've done really well. He wanted me to tell you he's sorry that he couldn't make it today."

Luke stood up. "Thanks," he replied.

"You talk the coach out of making you throw that heavy… thing?" Buddy asked, searching for the word.

Luke chuckled. "Yeah, I told him about my elbow, he kept me where I am now. He wasn't that mad, because he said I was fast. I don't think I'm that fast, but he's the coach, so I did what he told me to."

"Have some confidence, Luke, we're going to blow Woodbury out of the water this season. Today," Buddy said, putting a hand on Luke's shoulder. "And you'll be a part of it. You've done a fine job this season."

Luke nodded. "Thanks, Buddy. I'll see you later."

"Have a good race." 

Lorelai smiled. "That was a nice story. Were you wearing those shorts?"

Luke rolled his eyes. "It was the uniform, Lorelai."

"Still, it was shouting, 'mock me!'" Lorelai said, using her hands for effect.

Luke rolled his eyes. "Your mother is impossible, Rory," he said, turning his attention to his step daughter.

Rory giggled. "That's what I've heard. I'm sorry. I tried to teach her that nothing was impossible, but then she learned she couldn't fly. And now look at her. Impossible."

"I'm not," Lorelai added, shoveling down her last bite of pancake. "Who's on the next page?" she asked, her mouth still full.

Rory cringed. "I like seafood, but I don't like to SEE food," she teased.

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "All right, Rory, that was good, when are you moving to second grade?"

"Ha. That's funny. Let me know when you go to kindergarten so I can get you a box of those fat crayons!" Rory shot back.

Lorelai pouted. "You're too good for me. My brain is melting, melting. Luke? Who's next?"


	12. Kirk Gleason

**Kirk Gleason**

Lorelai pumped her fist. "Yes! Kirk's page. Ah! Look at him, with that amazingly awful bowl cut! And that sweater… but still, that hair cut. Did Mrs. Gleason do that?"

Luke shrugged. "I don't know. But it's funny to look at. I can use it for blackmail at some point."

"I'm not sure if he's stranger than he was when he was younger, or if the older he got, the more sane he became," Rory mused.

"And if this is sane? I'd have loved to see him at eight. Did he foam at the mouth?" Lorelai questioned.

"I'm guessing no, unless he was bitten by a rabid dog, or a raccoon or something. But you're right, he was weird," Luke offered.

Lorelai clapped her hands together. "Story time! How about a story… about Kirk's first job? That seems like an appropriate story. He's had so many jobs, I wonder how anyone hires him."

Rory giggled. "Yeah, I like that idea. What was Kirk's first job? Was it anything really exciting or glamorous?"

Luke sighed. "Besides the lemonade stands, and the leaf selling?" "Leaf selling?" Lorelai asked, confused. "He tried to sell leaves. By the bag," Luke explained. "Is he insane? Oh, wait, sorry, it's Kirk. Got it," Lorelai insisted. "Well, I do know what Kirk's first job was. I was one of the unfortunate people who he had to work with."

"He worked at the HARDWARE STORE?" Lorelai asked, in shock. "Your dad must have slaughtered him."

"God, no, my dad couldn't stand him. He worked as a water boy for the track team," Luke recalled.

Rory giggled. "I bet there are some interesting stories out there about that one. But tell us yours, because I'm just dying to know about these adventures."

"I second that," Lorelai started. "These should be really, really fascinating stories."

"It's not like I have the dirt on everyone in town, Lorelai," Luke muttered.

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Luke. Come on. Just go with it here, and tell us the story."

"Fine," Luke huffed. "It was my first track meet of senior year."

_"Mr. Danes?"_ _Luke turned around. It was Kirk, again. The annoying voice never seemed to go away. Luke rolled his eyes. He'd heard that voice again… for the twentieth time in the past hour. It was getting to be too much for him. "What, Kirk?" Luke bellowed._

"Would you like some water now?" he asked, sheepishly. He showed Luke the water bottle.

Luke took the water bottle from Kirk's hand. "I will take a drink of water in a minute. Now please, leave me alone?"

Kirk cleared his throat. "But Mr. Danes, sir, uh, I'm being paid to do that for you. Please open your mouth and I'll squirt it into your mouth. We don't need you to exert any more energy than you need to for the race."

"I can do it myself, Kirk," Luke insisted.

"Please, Mr. Danes, sir, it's my first day on the job. I can't get fired. I just can't!" Kirk protested, his tone getting more and more panicked.

"Kirk," Luke began. "First, you've known me as 'Luke' your whole life. Second, I am capable of squirting my own drink into my own mouth, thank you very much."

"But the NFL players have water people," Kirk added. "Don't you want to feel important?"

"I don't care about the NFL," Luke replied. "And I don't care about feeling important."

Kirk shook his head. "I wouldn't either, if my team were doing as badly as the Patriots are right now…"

"You said you didn't want to get fired?" Luke asked.

Kirk took a deep breath. "Mother wouldn't have it. There's no way."

Luke sighed. "Then shut up and stop bothering me."

Kirk nodded. He walked to the other end of the bench and filled up some more water bottles when he saw Luke get up to stretch. He came running back, carrying a moist towel on his arm. "Here's a towel," he said, handing Luke the towel and running back to the other end.

"This is going to be a long season," Luke said under his breath.

"Here's your water, Mr. Danes!" Lorelai mocked. "All I could picture when you said 'Water boy' was Adam Sandler. Then, I moved on to him taking the bottle and accidentally squirting it in your eye or something, temporarily blinding you and forcing you to wear an eye patch."

"And you know, that was my fear exactly?" Luke added. "And I was half serious about that. Knowing Kirk, he would blind me, but I was not going to let him anywhere near me."

Rory added her own thoughts to the conversation that was occurring. "I'm not surprised. I would be, too. Trust me. It's a Gilmore Handbook rule… when something involves Kirk Gleason, be suspicious right away. We made the rule based on years of evidence."

"Good girl," Lorelai said, holding her hand up for Rory to give her a high five. "That's my little genius!"

Luke chuckled. "Kirk always was insane."

Rory smiled. "Have you ever met his mother?" she asked. "I'm really curious about her, and all of Kirk's siblings."

"I think she's a hologram. Or she's not really alive, and Kirk basically pretends she's around to make excuses for his lack of social skill. Or she's just really afraid to come outside," Lorelai mused.

"I've never met his mother. If she's anything like him, one Kirk Gleason is enough to deal with. But before he and Lulu got engaged, he came to me to ask me a 'really important question'," Luke said. "He pretty much depends on me for advice."

Rory's eyes widened. "EW!" she shrieked.

"You two have the dirtiest minds I've ever come across. No, Rory, and no, Lorelai, he didn't ask me about… that," Luke said, trailing off at the end of his sentence. "He had a problem working out the balance between his relationship with Lulu and his relationship with his mother."

_Kirk sauntered up to the counter, obviously upset about something. He was fidgeting, looking at the door constantly. Luke emerged from the kitchen, bracing himself for chaos. "What can I do for you, Kirk?" he asked, slightly annoyed before Kirk had even said a single word._

"I need your advice. It's really important. No one else can know," Kirk said, his pace rapid fire.

Luke felt a hint of sympathy for Kirk. "What's wrong, Kirk?"

"I want to move out. I know, I know, Mother's done virtually everything for me, all my life. How will I ever be able to survive in the real world if I don't learn on my own? I need to become independent at some point. And that point is NOW, Luke, NOW. You got that?" Kirk said, his tone becoming more and more frantic as he progressed. "Everyone's making me fear that I've never been independent enough to survive."

Luke sighed. "Kirk, it's going to be okay."

"I want to marry Lulu, and I can't have Mother breathing down my neck every second, watching me and making sure that I'm doing everything okay. I just can't. Lulu and I need to move, and mother doesn't approve in my previous investment of the Twickham House. What do I do, Luke? Please help me!" he begged.

"Have you talked to your mother and Lulu about this?" Luke asked, as if it were the most obvious solution in the world.

Kirk shook his head vigorously. "No. Mother wouldn't understand. She would know Lulu and I plan on… sleeping in the same bed."

"Well, you got here somehow, didn't you?" Luke asked.

Kirk shrugged. "I guess. Maybe she will see my side of things, you know? I should write her a very nice letter and give her my notice. I'll thank her for everything she's done and pay her back rent for the years I stayed with her."

"If that's what makes you feel better, Kirk," Luke insisted.

"It makes me feel worlds better. I don't know how I can ever thank you for what you've done. Your advice has prevented me from going into a state of nervous breakdown. And that would be potentially devastating for my reputation," Kirk insisted.

Luke tried his hardest not to laugh. "O-kay, Kirk, glad I could help," he said.

"Peace," Kirk said, banging his chest with his fist and giving Luke the 'peace' sign on his way out.

Luke couldn't help but laugh after Kirk was all the way out the door.

Rory held up her hand. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Kirk did this?" she asked, repeating the gesture Luke described.

Lorelai was still laughing, walking from the kitchen to the living room and grabbing a paper towel to dab her eyes with on the way out.

Luke nodded. "Yup. That's exactly what he did."

"Kirk's a gangsta?" Lorelai asked, collapsing on the couch, laughing harder. "I can just imagine him, having all these posters in his room, of 50 Cent and Kanye West, and like, Run DMC. We should raid his room," she said, trying to catch her breath.

"Can laughing make you go into labor?" Rory asked. "Because you're doing an awfully good job at the laughing thing."

"Oh, that would be really nice," Lorelai replied. "I wish. But I know one thing that almost always causes women to go into labor…" she said, raising an eyebrow at Luke.

Luke rolled his eyes. "Rory's here!" he protested.

"Oh, Rory and I had 'the birds and the bees' talk when she was seven, it's okay, she knows what people do to create babies. She knew that when most kids still thought there was an actual stork," Lorelai mused.

"Anyway," Luke said, taking the focus off of Lorelai and redirecting it back to the album. "Kirk is weird, he always has been and he always will be. Any questions?"

"Nope. You've made it perfectly clear," Rory insisted. "I really like these stories. Thank you for sharing them with me."

Luke gave Rory a hug. "It's my pleasure. You know, you're a part of this album, too."

Her eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yup. Both you and your mom are in here."

Lorelai looked at Luke. "We're in the album?" she choked, between tears.

"Water works," Rory said, turning to Luke.

Luke smiled. "What did you expect? You're family to me."

Lorelai kissed her husband. "That action and that comment just made me love you even more, which I didn't think was even humanly possible."

"Aww," Rory gushed. "That is so adorable!"

"Are we next?" Lorelai asked, sniffling.

"Not yet, but soon. Next," Luke instructed. 


	13. Sookie St JamesBelleville

**Sookie (St. James) Belleville**

Lorelai giggled when she saw the picture of Sookie on the next page, in front of the wedding cake that she baked for Lorelai and Luke, showing it off as though she were Vanna White. "Remind me again, why you have these random townspeople in your family album?"

"Is that a bad thing?" Luke asked. "Were they not allowed in here? Is there some rule to the album that doesn't allow townspeople in a town like this to be in an album?"

"No, it's not, but I was kind of curious, because I know these people aren't blood relatives, nor are they married to you, so their entrance to the album got me wondering, that's all," Lorelai explained.

He sighed. "I got to really missing my mom one day. A while back. And I explained this to Rory, who helped me out with the album."

Lorelai turned to her daughter. "You were in on this the whole freakin' time? How come I didn't know about it?"

"Well, uh, to tell you the truth, you didn't know because you and I weren't exactly on speaking terms at that point in time," Luke offered.

She sighed. "Wow, uh, I forgot how much I miss when I don't talk to people."

Luke cleared his throat. "Anyway. Rory assisted me in the picture finding process, sending me copies of lots of pictures she had."

"Aww, what a nice kid you are," Lorelai gushed. "Helping Luke make his fantastic album that he has now decided to share with us!"

"You found the album," Luke muttered, but Lorelai and Rory seemed to ignore him.

Rory shrugged. "You aren't mad, are you?"

Lorelai smiled. "Why would I be mad? Just look at what he made out of it! It's beautiful, how on Earth could I be angry about that?"

"Phew," Rory sighed. "I was nervous for a second, there."

Luke pointed to the picture of Sookie and Lorelai in the bottom right corner. Davey was sitting on Sookie's lap, and Lorelai had her arm around Sookie. The two were sitting on the couch at Sookie's house. "That was obviously at Davey or Martha's birthday party," he said. "You have a party hat on."

"I do, don't I? Oh, my god, look! It's almost a mirror image of the picture of your mom and Mia," Lorelai gasped.

"The reason I put it in here. You two remind me of the little bits and pieces of what I remember about my mom and Mia's friendship. Or, the good chunk of it. You two are pretty much my mom and Mia."

Lorelai smiled. "You were there, at that party, remember? It was Davey's birthday party, before you and I… got married."

"I do remember," Luke replied. "I heard you two talking about me."

She blushed and cleared her throat. "You did?"

He nodded. "I heard every word you two said."

"Sookie started it! She's always had an obsession with you and me!" Lorelai protested.

"What did you and Sookie say, Mom?" Rory asked.

_"Sookie, come sit down. You've done enough, everyone's enjoying cake, come sit with your best friend. Luke will entertain them if we need to entertain them," Lorelai insisted. _

_Sookie smiled. "Okay, fine. That could be amusing." _

_"He's an entertaining guy, what can I say?" Lorelai said, shrugging. _

_"So you and Luke… you two are back together, again, huh? How's that going? Are things as good as they were the first time?" Sookie asked._

Lorelai smiled. "Even better than the first time."

"Ooh, better? That's fantastic, Lorelai. You two are just the most adorable couple. And if you ever wanted to know, it was always really obvious that you two loved each other," Sookie insisted.

"You made sure to tell me that, a lot. I just didn't listen. I guess I should listen to my best friend, huh?" Lorelai said.

Sookie hugged Lorelai. "Well, you had to figure it out on your own, I suppose. It's the only way. You seem really happy."

Lorelai nodded. "I'm happier than I've ever been. Ever, in my entire life. Barring the way Rory was born."

"I can tell. Speaking of Rory, you and Luke talk about your future? You know, having kids and whatnot?" Sookie asked.

"Well, we've discussed it a little. We've agreed on two, at least that's what we agreed on at the engagement party," Lorelai revealed.

Sookie squealed. "A little boy and a little girl, right? Please tell me that's what you're going to do. That would be amazing."

"Yeah, of course it would be amazing. I wanted Luke to be able to be a dad to a little boy, too, you know? He should be able to take someone fishing, teach him to play baseball, do all that guy stuff that I can't do, April can't do, and Rory can't do, you know?"

"Of course, I can see it now. He's such a great guy, Lorelai, you're lucky," Sookie gushed.

Lorelai nodded. "I am. He's been putting up with me going stir crazy for a while now. I really want another baby, but we've planned on waiting until we get married to try… but I just want it so bad, and I've been bugging the heck out of him, you know?"

"Sure, you're excited, and you really want to see Luke as a daddy," Sookie reasoned.

"Yeah, I mean, he is a dad, but I want to see him be a dad to our kid, you know, one we had oh so much fun creating together…"

Sookie giggled. "You'll have it soon. I wouldn't be surprised if you come back from your honeymoon with a bun in the oven. It'll happen quicker than you expect. That's my take on things."

Lorelai smiled. "You're a great friend, you know that, Sookie?"

"Thanks, you're a great friend too." 

Lorelai looked at Luke, trying to stifle a giggle. "And you heard all of that?"

"I heard every word," Luke confirmed.

"Wow," Lorelai mused, "that's why you and I didn't go out much on that honeymoon!"

Luke shrugged. "Just trying to make you happy."

"And you did, obviously," Lorelai said, gesturing toward her stomach.

"Luke, did you know Sookie before Mom and I met her?" Rory asked.

"My mom used to babysit Sookie occasionally. I knew her, but not really well, until I met you guys," Luke explained.

Lorelai twirled a strand of hair around her finger. "That's so sweet! You have any other Sookie stories you'd care to share?" she asked.

Luke rubbed his chin. "Uh, let's see. Not long after you and I got married, she came by the diner with the kids."

"All three of them?" Lorelai asked, wide eyed.

Luke nodded. "They were on their best behavior that day, so I wasn't annoyed. She came to me and gave me a piece of advice. Or three pieces of advice, to be exact. They were all regarding you, Lorelai." 

_"Hey, Sookie," Luke said, opening the door for her. "You've got your hands full there, don't you?"_

Sookie laughed. "Yeah, Martha and Davey were getting antsy in the house, so I packed everybody up and we headed to the park. Then we all got hungry, so we decided to stop by. How are you?"

"I'm good, how are you? How is she compared to the first two?" Luke asked, gesturing toward the carrier Sookie held in her right hand.

"Aw, Bernadette's a great baby. She's awfully quiet compared to Davey and Martha, so I'm guessing she'll be the shy one of the bunch," Sookie replied.

Luke nodded. "Oh, good, I'm glad she's not giving you too much trouble."

"May I give you a piece of advice?" Sookie asked suddenly.

Luke raised his eyebrows. "Should I sit down for this?"

Sookie shrugged. "It might be helpful. I would hate to see you faint."

He pulled out a chair for Sookie and helped her get the kids situated while she talked. "You and Lorelai are going to have two kids, right?"

"Yeah, if everything works out the right way, definitely," Luke said.

"Wow, you sound… really open about that possibility."

Luke nodded. "It wouldn't be so bad."

"Well, a piece of advice for you. Okay, a few. One? Don't treat her like she's broken when she's pregnant. Jackson did that to me, suddenly childproofing everything in the house that wasn't logical to childproof. It was nice to know he cared, but it was rather… annoying. Mood swings are bad enough, but when you guys cause them, they tend to get worse. No offense to you, but don't get on her bad side."

"O… kay," Luke replied, hesitantly.

Sookie continued. "Two? If she says it's a girl, it's definitely a girl. Don't doubt her. She's right. It's an instinct we have, and we don't know why we have it, but we do. So listen to her, and if you don't believe her, humor her. Become a really good actor, and never admit to her that you doubted her."

"Sookie?"

"And piece of advice number three? I think three's a good number of pieces of advice to give… when you pick out names, if you don't like a name, just tell her. It's not a personal attack against her, but you just might end up giving your kid a name that you hate if you tell her you love it. Okay?"

Luke sighed. "That's fine, and all, but may I ask why this advice is suddenly needed?"

"I think I saw Lorelai eat an apple today. Not applesauce, not an apple pie, the red delicious itself," Sookie admitted. "And I didn't want to ruin it for you… but I can't keep a secret for the life of me. I'm Lorelai's best friend, and I can't seem to move past the fact that I knew before everyone else. I confronted her, and she was kind of on the fence about it."

Luke smiled. "It's okay, Sookie, I already knew."

Sookie's eyes widened. "You did?"

"She ate an apple last week. I asked Rory, Rory gave me the scoop on the apple. I'm just waiting for Lorelai to admit it to me."

Sookie sighed. "And I thought I was being so observant!"

"That's okay, you know before most of the world. I'm thinking Babette may have an idea, but we're not really sure."

She smiled. "Congratulations, Luke. I'm very happy for you. Now, to avoid anyone else hearing the rest of our conversation, can we get three cheeseburgers to go?" she asked, leaning in and giving Luke a hug. 

Lorelai smiled. "I love Sookie. A lot."

"She's fantastic," Rory agreed. "And I bet she's happy now."

Lorelai nodded. "She got her wish."

"She did, didn't she?" Luke asked.

"I'm going to have to torment her about that story," Lorelai mused.

"I'm presuming that Jackson is next?" Rory asked.

"See, there's no order to how this goes, so anyone could be next. But my informants tell me that it's Jackson," Lorelai insisted.


	14. Jackson Belleville

**Jackson Belleville **

As Lorelai turned the page, she looked at Rory, gave her a smile, and pointed to the picture. "And there's Jackson, in his picture pajamas!" Lorelai squealed. "Which reminds me, when I get skinny again, I need a new pair of pajamas."

Rory turned to Lorelai. "I see your point. You have to get new pajamas when you get a new outfit, or when you buy new bedding. This would constitute a new pair of pajamas, definitely."

"I know, but that's not for another… one month plus however long it takes me to get the weight off," Lorelai said with a pout. "But I love the pajamas I wore last night! They're so comfy and warm…"

"So you're saying that Jackson's picture in this album is leading you to a tangent about wanting to buy new pajamas?" Luke questioned.

Lorelai nodded. "Jeez, Luke, pajamas make me happy," she teased. "And they'll make me feel very pretty during a time in which women usually don't feel the slightest bit pretty."

Rory sat on the arm of the couch to get a better look at the photo album. She smiled as she pointed to the picture of Jackson and Paul Anka. Jackson was scratching Paul Anka behind the ear, and Paul Anka had his head on Jackson's lap, sleeping. "I love that picture. Sookie wanted to prove to Jackson's mother that Jackson wasn't afraid of dogs, and here is her proof."

"I remember that day, too! That was really funny!" Lorelai said, straightening up on the couch.

Luke rolled his eyes. "Sookie took that picture just to prove to Jackson's mother that he didn't hate dogs?"

"What better way to prove it?" Lorelai questioned. "A picture of Jackson with a cat wouldn't do the trick. And a picture of Jackson with a stuffed dog says nothing. The real, live, genuine Paul Anka definitely says it."

"Well, maybe if Jackson says that it doesn't bother him to be around dogs…" Luke mused.

Lorelai huffed. "No, come on! That's so boring! And how's she going to believe THAT? Really, now, Luke, seeing is believing!"

"Seeing is believing," Luke repeated. "I totally get it now," he said sarcastically.

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Just ask Kirk. He didn't believe that I was pregnant until he came back from summer vacation with Lulu."

Rory giggled. "I didn't know that," she said. "That's funny."

Luke scratched his head. "Okay, so this is Jackson's page, not Kirk's."

"Wow, Luke, you're getting good at this game!" Lorelai teased.

Luke pointed to the picture in the top left hand corner of the page. He looked at Lorelai, making sure she was paying attention before he proceeded. "This is Jackson, obviously. You know he is my vegetable vendor now, right?"

Lorelai smiled. "I do know that. You're so sweet to give my friend and her husband some money!"

"It's all about the quality of the vegetables. Look, my vegetable vendor bailed, and I needed someone. And Jackson was right there."

"As he always is," Lorelai replied. "Tell us the story."

"I called him and asked him for some stuff on really short notice one day," Luke started.

_Luke was fuming, unable to figure out what to do. His vegetable vendor just bailed on him, letting him know that they wouldn't be able to make another delivery until next Wednesday. He needed the cucumbers… as soon as possible. Pacing behind the counter, a solution popped into his mind. He picked up the phone and called Jackson, hoping he could help him in the meantime. He hoped Jackson was around._

"Hello?"

"Hey, Jackson, it's Luke."

"Luke, how goes it?"

Luke sighed. "Not so well. Listen, I know you have your regular customers, but if I gave you an order, would you be able to help me out?"

"Of course, Luke! Anything for you. You and Lorelai have done so much for me and Sookie, it's the least I could do to pay you back. Let me know what you need, and when you need it," Jackson agreed.

"Uh, how's everything, and lots of it? And does as soon as possible present a problem?" Luke asked, obviously stressed.

Jackson chuckled. "You're lucky, Luke, I'm in the midst of a lull. I think the two of us will benefit from this. I'll be over in about an hour or so? That will give me time to pick some crops and load everything up."

"Sounds good. Thanks, Jackson, I really appreciate all of your help."

"Luke, really, it's no problem!" Jackson insisted.

Jackson arrived an hour later, carrying crates of vegetables and other produce with him. Luke ran to open the door for him, taking one of the crates from him. "Wow, Jackson, you've got a lot here for me."

"Like I said, I'm here for ya, buddy! Trust me, there's nothing like being in a predicament and having no one to turn to," Jackson explained, setting the crates one by one on Luke's counter.

"How much do I owe you?" Luke asked.

Jackson shrugged. "Think of these as trial, and we can talk business later. You have a crappy vendor, you know that?"

"Yeah, I figured that one out pretty quick. Thanks, Jackson," Luke said, grabbing one crate at a time and taking them off of the counter. 

Rory smiled. "I knew the tomatoes on my cheeseburger were juicier," she mused.

"Well, see, I thought he just cut them thicker," Lorelai replied. "Until Sookie told me that they went into business together."

Luke unconsciously took off his hat and put it back on. He moved over on the couch slightly, getting comfortable and listening to Rory and Lorelai debate the tomatoes. It was actually amusing until they started to get off topic. "Uh, hello, do you want to hear any more stories from the album?" Luke asked. "Because we can stop anytime."

Lorelai cleared her throat. "Sorry, professor, you can read the note we were passing, if you want."

Rory giggled. "Has that ever actually happened to you, Mom?"

Lorelai shrugged. "Yeah, I've gotten caught once or twice, before I found inventive ways to pass notes. But when I got caught, it was never juicy enough to be embarrassed by. Once it was about an assignment. The other was about how I was hungry."

"No surprise there, that you were hungry," Luke interjected.

Lorelai pouted. "I'm eating for two here, do you realize that?"

"You only have one more month to use that excuse. What happens after that?"

"I have a healthy appetite, what can I say?" Lorelai said with a smile. "I won't debate that."

Luke rolled his eyes. "And she's shameless, too."

"We are pretty awesome," Rory said. "We hold our heads high and eat shamelessly."

Lorelai leaned over to look at the album again. She smiled when she saw a picture of Jackson and Luke at Luke and Lorelai's wedding. "Now that is an adorable picture I want. Maybe we should do like your grandmother had us do that day, putting post it notes on the pictures we want copies of?"

"Huh?" Luke asked, obviously confused. He motioned to the picture. "Can I finish?"

Lorelai put her feet up on the coffee table. "Be my guest."

"Oh! That reminds me of a Disney trivia tidbit!" Rory shrieked.

Lorelai sat up quickly. "Okay, I'm game. Go."

"You know the Beast? From 'Beauty and the Beast'? His name was supposed to be ADAM. I learned this the other day."

Lorelai scrunched up her nose. "Adam? Huh. That's really boring."

"Do I look like I care?" Luke interrupted.

Rory grinned. "You know you love us."

"Sorry, continue," Lorelai insisted. "You and Jackson at our wedding."

_Jackson caught up with Luke a little while after the ceremony ended. "Hey, there, Luke. Congratulations."_

"Thanks, Jackson, glad you could make it," Luke said.

Jackson nodded. "Well, I wouldn't miss it. You're a good guy, Luke. You deserve to be happy. And I mean, don't take this in some sort of twisted way, but Lorelai's a beautiful woman."

Luke smiled. "Nah, I know you're safe, Jackson. And trust me, I know how beautiful she is."

"Sookie is just thrilled you're finally together. You know, she's been bugging me about the two of you for awhile now. She'd been trying to resist the urge to play matchmaker for quite awhile," Jackson started. "And I talked her out of it, letting you guys find each other on your own."

"Well, we appreciate it, Jackson," Luke replied.

Jackson nodded. "If you need any advice, I've been a married man for awhile now. I know you've been married before, but… you know, if you need anything…"

"Thanks, Jackson, that's nice of you."

"No problem. Have you seen Sookie?"

Luke pointed across the dance floor. "Over there."

"See you later," Jackson called as he made his way over to Sookie. 

As Lorelai giggled, Rory's cell phone rang. "Oh, sorry, I have to take this, I'll be right back."

Rory went outside, and Lorelai craned her neck to see if she could get a glimpse of the expression on her face. "Gah, she's so professional. She won't let me see who she's talking to."

"Isn't that terrible," Luke said sarcastically.

Lorelai sighed. "Secrets, secrets, are no fun, unless you are a part of one!"

"You really didn't ever grow up, did you?" Luke asked.

"Not particularly. Part of me will always, always be a little kid. It's a good stress reliever," she replied.

Rory came back inside. She seated herself on the arm of the couch again. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have taken the call."

Luke nodded. "It's okay, we know you're busy, right, Lorelai?"

Lorelai turned to face her daughter. "I hate not being a part of the fun."

"If you call my boss fun? I'll let you answer it next time," Rory teased.

Lorelai clapped her hands. "Yay!"

"You are so easily amused," Luke said, turning the page once again.


	15. Crazy Carrie Duncan

"**Crazy Carrie" Duncan**

"Man, there is no logical order to the setup of this album whatsoever, is there?" Lorelai asked.

Luke shrugged. "Well, not really. My mom did the first part, and after that, it just basically went downhill. But I promised her I'd keep it up. And I have. That's the best I can do."

Rory smiled. "I like a little spontaneity, unpredictability… you know, it makes life interesting!"

"Thanks for sticking up for HIM and not ME, Rory. We're flesh and blood! I gave you life!" Lorelai pouted.

"Yeah, but Luke feeds me. You're equally important in my book, how's that?" Rory asked.

Lorelai smiled. "All right. Just making sure."

Rory leaned over and stared at the pictures in the photo album. "Am I not supposed to know who this is?" she asked.

"That's Crazy Carrie!" Lorelai gasped. "You put HER in your album?"

Luke nodded. "Good stories come from these pictures. That's exactly why I put them here. Plus, she's Liz's friend, which, unfortunately, by my mother's definition, makes her family."

Rory pulled her chair closer to the table and continued to look at the picture of Crazy Carrie and Liz, sitting in the bleachers of what looked like one of Luke's baseball games. She looked at Luke. "Does she still stalk you?"

"Depending on the day," Luke mused. "If she's around Liz, then, yes, definitely, she is my stalker. She doesn't seek me out, though, if that's what you're asking."

Lorelai giggled. "We should pay her a little visit, show her how in love we are."

Rory raised her eyebrows. "Mom. Seriously. You don't think that Carrie would tackle him anyway? I mean, if she stalks Luke so much would she really care? I mean, after all… she must be taking pictures of him and hanging them on her wall."

"She knows about us, Lorelai, Rory's right, it wouldn't matter. So anyway," Luke said, trying to make a smooth transition to his story. "Liz told me about a conversation she had with Carrie once. They were talking a few weeks ago, and Liz dug deeper about her obsession with me."

"Wow," Rory started, "She's a journalist at heart, huh?"

Luke chuckled. "I'll have her give you a call. Anyway, apparently it started when she was in the first grade, and grew from there."

_The phone rang and Liz reached for it. "Hello?" she answered._

"Liz, how are you, sweetheart?"

Liz shook her head. "Well, if it isn't Crazy Carrie Duncan! How are you? How'd you get my number?"

Carrie chuckled. "Didn't I tell you? I got it out of Luke!"

Liz rolled her eyes. "What is your obsession with my big brother, anyway?"

"Isn't it obvious? He's so rugged… handsome. He's just so HOT," Carrie gushed.

"See, Carrie, I'm not allowed to think like that. He's my big brother. And I'm married. And last I checked, you were taken as well," Liz replied.

Carrie snorted. "Oh, please. Like that matters. All that matters is that I love your brother's butt."

"Can we please talk about something else now?" Liz asked, slightly disgusted.

"You started it," Carrie deadpanned. "And besides, I can't just give up someone that I've loved since first grade."

Liz put Doula in her high chair, trying to zone out while Carrie talked, but of course, she still heard every word.

"I wanted a cherry lollipop on Halloween. He had that cherry lollipop. I asked him for it, he said no. I threw the biggest hissy fit you could imagine. Then he still said no. I threw a bigger one. He finally threw it in my pillowcase and ran away. And I loved him ever since," Carrie explained.

Liz sighed. "How does him giving you a lollipop constitute true love?"

"It's the gesture's symbolism, not the gesture itself," Carrie replied in a 'duh' type of a tone.

"I'm not sure if you are aware, but he did it because he wanted you to shut up," Liz explained.

Carrie laughed. "Oh, you never know, Liz. You just don't know him like I do." 

Lorelai collapsed into a fit of giggles once again, laying her head on the table as she laughed. Rory followed suit, laughing because Lorelai was laughing. Luke watched as the two laughed so hard they cried, a frequent occurrence throughout his story telling. When they regained composure, Lorelai and Rory sat up and turned to Luke.

"So, uh, Carrie… knows you well, huh?" Lorelai said, erupting into giggles once more.

Rory sighed. "It's only funny for a few minutes, Mom. You should know this by now," she teased. "And Luke, I think it's humanly possible to get a restraining order against this psychotic stalker."

Luke snorted. "Yeah, if only I had some sort of legal defense against her other than the tidbit of information that says she's in love with me and she's as annoying as hell."

"Hell's annoying? Wow, I guess I really don't want to go there after all," Lorelai mused.

Luke turned to face his wife. "I'm not sure if you know this, but that was a figure of speech."

She waved her hand at Luke. "I know, I know, back to your album. Are there any other entertaining stories that I need to hear, or is this going to be it for this page?"

Luke sighed. "I can tell you the real bleacher story. But if you're not interested, we can just move on."

Rory's eyes widened. "This is a first in Gilmore Danes history, people! Luke is telling the real, true to life story, of the 'making out with Crazy Carrie under the bleachers' incident. Stay tuned."

"Ooh, intrigue! You've captured my attention, my darling husband. Speak now or I'll make you drink coffee," Lorelai said.

"You can MAKE me drink coffee? I'm not sure it's possible to MAKE someone do something, Lorelai," Luke replied, clearly not amused.

Lorelai huffed. "I'm sorry, Luke, I'm just so hyper today! I don't know what got into me, I just really… am in a good mood."

"Which is good, definitely, I love when you're your… unique self. But do you want to hear my story? If you do, the faster you stop yapping, the quicker I can tell the story," Luke reasoned.

Lorelai folded her hands on the table and straightened up in her seat. "Go ahead, I'm listening," she said, smiling, obviously intrigued by what Luke was about to reveal. "Is this going to make me laugh?"

"I'm not sure, maybe you should find out," Rory interjected.

Lorelai nodded, taking a strand of hair and tucking it behind her ear. "Got it. One, two, three, go!" she said, pointing to Luke.

"I skipped my AP Biology class that day to run track," he started. "I was in a really bad mood that day, and I needed a break."

_Luke threw his book bag down on the ground. He had simply had enough of school for that day. He spent hours studying for the American Literature exam, and somehow, he froze as soon as that test hit his desk. Maybe college wasn't going to be for him, after all._

He unbuttoned his flannel and took it off, dropping it on top of his backpack. He started to run around the track, trying to calm down. Joining the track team was the best decision he'd made in quite awhile. His dad wasn't doing so well, and that took a toll on Luke. Running was his way of relieving the stresses of everyday life. Plus, the track team automatically gave him a status with the girls. Luke was convinced that the newfound interest was not a bad thing at all. He would be able to get a date for the prom much more easily than he thought possible. If he even decided to go, that was. He was still on the fence about the idea to begin with. Plus, the girl he'd had his eye on was going out with someone else.

After a few laps around the track, Luke was much less stressed. He decided that he was ready to go home. Gathering his things together, he walked back to the bleachers to find Carrie Duncan wearing his flannel shirt. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he asked.

"I was about to ask you the same thing, Butch. Aren't you supposed to be in Mr. MacGregor's AP Bio class?" Carrie inquired, raising her eyebrows.

"Give me my shirt back, please. And if you must know, I have a hall pass," Luke said, producing the yellow slip of paper.

Carrie rolled her eyes. "You don't skip a class with a hall pass, Butch. Oh, you have so much to learn."

"Give me my shirt!" Luke snarled.

Carrie took off the shirt in a huff. "Fine, fine. Be that way. I thought we were a couple, Luke."

"In what universe?" Luke shot back. He picked up his backpack and started to walk away.

She grabbed his wrist, pulled him under the bleachers, and put her hands on his face. She pulled him toward her, and kissed him. Luke pulled away. "What the hell are you thinking?" he asked, wiping his lips.

She smiled. "I finally made out with Butch underneath the bleachers. It's a lifelong dream come true. Wait until I tell everyone," she stated simply as she walked away.

Luke made a mental note to burn his flannel shirt later. 

Rory raised her eyebrows. "And people really believed her?"

Luke shook his head. "It's just a story that she likes to tell, to convince herself that she was better off than she actually was in high school. Most people thought she was the most obnoxious person they'd ever met."

Lorelai snorted. "I'm not surprised!"

"Me either," Luke replied. "Was that story worth it?"

Lorelai thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, it was. I like the way you made that mental note to burn your shirt. I'd have done the same thing, you know, cooties," she said seriously.

"Yeah, you never know what kind of things may seep into your skin and give you the creepy crawlies," Rory teased.

"Or an STD, via shirt wearing," Lorelai said, not able to handle it anymore, breaking down laughing once again.

Rory looked at Luke. "I heard laughing adds 8 years onto your life. Good job, Luke, for adding years to her life."

"Well, with all that junk food you two eat, they may just counteract, you know, cancel each other out," Luke replied.

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Puh-lease. I like Rory's take on things better."

"Of course you do," Luke said, turning the page.


	16. Rachel and Nicole

**Rachel and Nicole**

Lorelai held up her hand and interrupted Luke. "Uh, Luke?"

"What?"

"You can't just tell us about the first girl and not the other two. That's leaving us in suspense," Lorelai pouted.

Luke cleared his throat. "You want to know about my ex girlfriends? Are you sure?"

Lorelai nodded. "Completely sure. Right, Rory?"

"If Mom wants to, then I do, too. And you can't forget Anna."

Luke closed the album, placed it on the coffee table, and straightened up. He wasn't quite sure what the girls wanted to know about Rachel and Nicole… they knew pretty much everything already. "Well," he started, adjusting his baseball cap, "we'll get to Anna when April's page comes, but what is it that you're dying to know about the other two?"

Lorelai pointed to the album. "There's gotta be a picture of at least one of them in there," she insisted.

Luke picked up the album again, looking through it for loose pictures. One picture of Rachel fell out and Luke turned bright red. "I didn't remember that was in there," he said.

"I don't care. Remember I'm the one that's stuck with you. Just… make sure to file that picture away somewhere after this explanation, all right?" Lorelai suggested.

"Okay," Luke consented, passing the picture to Rory. "That's Rachel, you know her."

Rory sighed. "Yes, I do. Coffee changer," she muttered.

"Coffee changer?" Luke asked, turning to face Rory.

She looked at her hands and gave the picture back to Luke. "When she came back that one time… she changed the coffee. And Mom and I knew it tasted different."

Luke nervously cleared his throat, taking the picture and putting it back in the album. "I see," Luke replied.

"And it wasn't one of those pleasant surprise changes, like 'oh, I dressed warmly today, but it's sunny out' or 'I thought this DVD was 'Hardbodies,' but it turns out it's actually 'Cool Hand Luke'.' It was one of those 'This doesn't taste right' changes," Lorelai explained.

"Oh. Well, I didn't know she changed it."

Rory gave Luke a slight smile. "We know. It's okay," she replied.

"How did you and Rachel meet?" Lorelai asked.

Luke unconsciously rubbed at his stubble, thinking back to the first time that he and Rachel met. "Uh, well, we, uh… we met when she came into the hardware store. She had no idea what to get for a project, so she came to me. Well, she was looking for my dad, but he was out at that moment, and she found me."

"Well, what was the project?" Lorelai inquired.

"She wanted to hang a light fixture of some sort," Luke explained, "and she didn't know how to get it into the wall."

Rory sighed. "I wouldn't either. Enter Luke Danes."

"I helped her figure out what she wanted and I asked her out," Luke continued.

Lorelai smiled. "You are more of a flirt than you make yourself out to be, you know."

"Anyway, so we dated that first time for two and a half years. And then she got sick of being in that kind of a relationship, in this kind of a town, and she took off, for a photography job. It was kind of a really crappy time in my life, and she kind of made it worse."

_Luke opened the shade on the door of the hardware store, to find Rachel leaned up against the wall. She gave a slight wave and he opened the door for her._

"Hey," he said softly.

She looked down at the floor and let out a heavy sigh. "I can't stay here, Luke."

"You can't? What… why… you…"

Rachel looked at Luke. "I can't do this anymore. It's been nice, really. But I can't stand being… stuck here. I need to go experience something outside of Stars Hollow, you know? Somewhere where not everyone knows who I am, and what I do."

"There are some people in this town that are crazy, Rachel, just…"

Rachel held up her hand. "I hate to do this to you, Luke, but Miss Patty and Babette, among the other people here, are driving me crazy. I feel like I'm constantly being questioned about you, and about what I want to do with my life… not to mention my parents…"

"Well, don't listen to them, do what you want to do," Luke insisted.

She shook her head. "It's not that simple. I can't do that here. I have to start somewhere else, fresh, and make a life for myself. You know what I mean?"

Luke sighed. "I guess. But what does this have to do with me?"

"Nothing, really. You've been great, and we've had some really nice experiences. But I think it's time for me to branch out, and follow what I want to do," Rachel explained.

"You realize this isn't making any sense to me, right?" Luke asked.

Rachel shrugged. "It doesn't to me, either. But something keeps pulling me away from Stars Hollow, and I need to find out what it is." She put her hand on his arm, and leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. "I'll give you a heads up if I come by."

"And this is it?" Luke asked. "This is it for… us?"

Rachel nodded. "I'm so sorry, Luke." She turned and walked out of the hardware store.

Lorelai hugged Luke. "I'm kind of glad she left, you know."

"Because you have him now, right?" Rory confirmed.

"Yeah. I'm the lucky one," Lorelai said, giving Luke a wink.

Luke leaned over to the coffee table and reached for the album before Lorelai slapped his hand. "Ouch!" he said, jerking his hand away.

"That's what you get for moving on without telling us the deal with Nicole," Lorelai muttered.

Luke rolled his eyes. "You two know about that!"

"But how the heck did you decide to go on a cruise? Huh? How?" Lorelai pressed.

Luke shrugged. "Well, I couldn't think of something to get for Nicole on her birthday."

"And you bought her a cruise? Luke, that's… insane," Lorelai insisted.

"I had some things on my mind that I wanted to get away from, you know?"

"Like what?" Rory asked.

Luke shrugged. "Things," he muttered. "Anyway, so I bought her tickets, we got married, and we got divorced on dry land."

Rory nodded. "And how did you figure out that things weren't going to work between you two?"

"Well, we talked, after that whole… everything," Luke said, preferring not to re hash the details of his breakup.

_The bells on the diner door rang, and Luke looked up from counting his money. It wasn't Lorelai, like he'd come to expect, but Nicole. What was she doing here? After the recent events, he was sure she wanted nothing to do with him. She walked into the diner, sat at the counter, and looked at him in a serious manner. She_

"We need to talk, Luke," Nicole insisted.

"That would probably be a great idea," Luke mused, his tone slightly sarcastic.

Nicole took offense to his tone, rolling her eyes and letting out a groan of frustration. She took off her gloves and her jacket. "This obviously isn't going to work."

"It obviously isn't if you come in here and tell me that it isn't going to work," Luke replied.

Nicole shook her head. "No, it's not. But that's not the reason. There are countless things that came to contribute to this ugly ending."

"Obviously there are," Luke replied. "But last time I checked, people don't just get married and give up so quickly if they're not from Hollywood."

"This is not the time for jokes, Luke," Nicole said, obviously agitated. "I want a divorce."

"So you can be with the sock guy?" Luke muttered.

She raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms. "Who?"

"Never mind, just forget it… whatever. You want to end this?" Luke asked, getting just as annoyed.

"As quickly as possible," she shot back.

Luke nodded. "Sounds good to me. Where do I need to sign?"

"Well, aren't you eager?" Nicole pressed.

He sighed and put down the money. "Let's end this on relatively good terms, okay? I want this over just as quickly as you."

"I'll send the papers over," Nicole said, getting her things and walking out of the diner. 

Lorelai sighed. "Each of your big breaks has ended at the diner."

"Uh, apparently," Luke replied.

Rory smiled. "But you guys got back together at the diner, technically, right?"

Lorelai put her head on Luke's shoulder. "She's right, Luke, we reversed the karma."

"Whatever you say," Luke insisted, picking the album up off of the coffee table.

"Who's next?" Lorelai asked, sitting up and watching as Luke turned to the next page in the album.

Rory giggled. "Patience, grasshopper," she teased.

"Patience is not usually a word in my extensive vocabulary," Lorelai replied, leaning closer to Luke as he tried to find the next page to share with Lorelai and Rory.

"Well, it's going to have to be. I think this is the page we're looking for," Luke said.


	17. TJ

**T.J.**

As Luke turned the page of the photo album, the giggling fits Lorelai and Rory had been having the entire day got even worse. The pictures of TJ that graced the next part of the album weren't necessarily flattering, at all. Luke rolled his eyes, but he was on the verge of laughing as well.

"That picture… is priceless!" Lorelai said, pointing to a picture in the top right.

Luke looked at the picture and groaned. The picture was taken at Liz's house, at the front door. Luke had his arms crossed, rolling his eyes, while TJ, a goofy grin on his face, pointed to Luke. He thought he'd hear it about that picture, for sure. Letting out a sigh, Luke gave the album to Lorelai, and Rory moved to the arm of the couch to get a better look. "That's TJ," Luke muttered.

Rory shook her head. "TJ is a nut. But he's a good guy."

"He's a really well intentioned guy, he's actually a very thoughtful person," Lorelai said.

Luke took the album back and placed it on his lap. "Neither one of you mentioned that he's the most annoying person I've ever met, right up there with Taylor and Kirk."

"He's the most annoying? I'm surprised Taylor didn't take the cake on that one," Rory mused.

Lorelai's eyes widened. "Cake? Chocolate cake? Do we have cake here? Because I could really go for some cake."

"Cake does sound good!" Rory gushed. "That Weston's cake, with the chocolate… okay, album first," she said, focusing on the pictures.

Lorelai pouted for a moment, then shrugged as though she was going to accept the idea of having cake later. She pointed to a strip of pictures that was placed in the album. "You went into one of those photo booth thingies in the mall?"

"I was forced," Luke said, trying to defend himself. "Liz shoved me in and TJ took the pictures."

Rory grinned. "This could be a rather amusing story, you know."

Lorelai nodded in agreement. "The possibilities for me to mock this story are endless, you realize that, right?"

"The list of things you can mock about Luke is getting longer, Mom, you've got a lot of power here," Rory insisted. "Use it wisely."

"I will, my dear daughter, thank you for the advice," Lorelai said, patting Rory's knee. "So, tell me again how you and TJ were in the mall together, at the same time? Because that concept alone is confusing me."

Luke rolled his eyes. "It was one of those things I didn't really have a choice on. I had to go with them, because Liz… well, she's Liz. So I went, because I'd hear it if I didn't."

_"How about Victoria's Secret?" Liz asked._

Luke turned bright red. "No! Jeez!"

Liz laughed. "Luke, I was kidding, but way to show just how protective of Rory you are! And Victoria's Secret has nice perfume."

TJ ignored the conversation going on, obviously distracted by the mall's photo booth. "Luke, we should take pictures in that photo booth thing!" TJ insisted.

Luke rolled his eyes. "It's bad enough that you guys forced me to come here, and now you want me to take a picture with you in that… thing? Come on, I shouldn't have even agreed to help you shop for Rory, you know what Rory likes!"

"Come on, Luke, really, it will be fun! Please?" TJ begged.

"No."

"Yes," Liz insisted, and shoved Luke into the photo booth with TJ.

Luke groaned as TJ punched him in the arm. "I finally get a picture in here with my brother in law! This is awesome! Here, make a funny face!" TJ instructed.

"Well, TJ, my face won't move to look like yours, I'm sorry," Luke said sarcastically.

TJ laughed as he pressed the 'take photo' button. "You're funny, Luke. That's good. Have you ever considered stand up comedy as your new profession? You could let me take the diner, and…"

"You're insane," Luke said, trying to get out of the booth. As Liz shoved him back in, Luke rolled his eyes.

"Come on, Luke, we still have three more pictures to take!" TJ insisted, pulling Luke's arm.

Luke rolled his eyes. "Are we done here?"

"No, these have to be perfect, Luke! These will be cherished in about a hundred years! We want it to mark the occasion, so someone will realize how close we were," TJ mused.

"Well, we're a little too close in this booth," Luke muttered.

The rest of the pictures were taken, and one copy of the picture strip was given to Luke. Liz smiled and hugged Luke. "Big brother, these pictures are fantastic!" she gushed.

"Well, you can have mine then," he offered, handing Liz his strip.

Liz shook her head. "Uh uh. You take those pictures and treasure them, okay?" 

Rory smiled. "I love your expression in the last picture. It's very 'oh, jeez'."

"I love giving pictures captions and stuff! Hey, I bet Luke is saying…"

Luke interrupted Lorelai by taking her hand. "I was inwardly cursing. No need to put words in my mouth."

"You're right, your facial expression says it all. It's great. I'm really liking this picture strip," Lorelai teased.

Rory smiled. "TJ is really amusing. I mean, seriously, he's really funny!"

"He's… an interesting character," Luke consented.

Lorelai smiled and wrapped her arm in Luke's. "You do realize that he's going to be an uncle to our kid, right?"

Luke groaned and put his head back on the couch. "Ah, jeez."

Rory walked over to the other end of the couch and hugged Luke. "Mom likes to scare you a little, but think about it this way. TJ has his own kid. If TJ is ever around yours, then he's going to give it back to you. He can't screw up but so much in that short period of time."

Luke sat up. "Thanks, Rory, you have a point there."

"Let's hear another story about TJ," Lorelai insisted.

Luke rolled his eyes. "Do we have to hear another one?"

Rory nodded. "Yes, yes we do. Think of how happy it will make us!"

"Yeah, Luke, think of how happy your wife and step daughter will be!" Lorelai gushed.

"Fine. The other day, TJ came by the diner," Luke started.

Rory raised her eyebrows. "What brought him to the diner?"

Luke rolled his eyes and sighed. "Mid life crisis."

_"Luke!" TJ called from the door of the diner._

Luke groaned. "TJ," he said, turning around and pretending to be at least civil.

"I need your help!" TJ said, taking his jacket off and revealing an apron he was wearing.

Luke's eyes widened as TJ came behind the counter. Luke gently pushed TJ out from behind the counter and pulled him outside. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm havin' a midlife crisis, Luke! I'm figuring that maybe I can work at the diner for awhile. Carpentry isn't my thing, and I need to know what is. Trying everything is the best way to go," TJ insisted.

"You're not trying my diner!" Luke said, getting frustrated.

"Come on, Luke, I really need your expertise! Maybe I want to open my own… sandwich shop or something, and I'd never know it unless you let me help you in here!" TJ groaned.

Luke sighed. "TJ. Look. I'm sorry you're having a midlife crisis, but I can't have you working in the diner. For one thing, you're not insured if you get hurt. Second, you can't cook."

"You can't teach me? Come on, Luke. I'm a fast, fast learner! Really, I am!"

"No. Good luck finding someone else to stalk," Luke shouted.

"Fine. Whatever, I won't name my sandwich shop after you, then!" TJ said. 

Rory shuddered. "Who's would be worse? Al's food or TJ's food?"

"Uh, I'm not sure. I'm guessing Al's, because of the blue manicotti, and TJ would learn from Luke. So Al," Lorelai replied.

"Yeah, that's true," Rory agreed.

Luke sighed. "Well, you'll never have to find out, because TJ isn't cooking for you, I refuse to allow him behind the counter, and you won't have to worry about it."

"Thank god," Lorelai sighed.

"Well, it would have been funny, if nothing else," Rory mused.

"What would happen if that was his dream?" Lorelai asked.

Luke rolled his eyes. "Don't make me feel bad!"

"You'd have felt bad?" Lorelai asked. "Or you feel bad now, which one is it?"

He groaned. "Neither. Moving on."


	18. Doula

**Doula **

****

Luke knew Lorelai's reaction to Doula's page in the album was coming. He sat for nearly five minutes listening to Rory and Lorelai gush over how adorable Doula was, and how much she looked like T.J.

When Rory and Lorelai had made a comment on every picture on her page, Lorelai finally turned to Luke and smiled. "Doula's adorable, Luke. She's just priceless. I love babysitting for her. We should have her over when this one gets bigger, they can play together!"

"Oh, Mom, that would be so cute! Be sure you call me when that happens. If I've learned anything from this photo album, it's that I need to take more pictures. I really, really do. I've been slacking, as a godparent, as a cousin to Doula, as a stepsister to April, in my picture taking duties!" Rory ranted.

Lorelai shrugged. "It's okay. Honest. We'll all start being picture nuts really soon."

"Yeah, and I'm so glad I'm coming home to be a picture nut in Stars Hollow!" Rory added.

Luke smiled. "I can barely use a digital camera, so that's all up to her," Luke said, pointing to Lorelai.

"Well, we're going to have to teach you, Luke. Honestly, there's going to be times when I'm not around, and our kid does something really cute, and I'd hate to miss it because you're technologically challenged," Lorelai teased.

"Don't make me feel guilty again!" Luke groaned.

Lorelai giggled, leaning her head on Luke's shoulder. "Well, I was just kidding, but you should learn how to use it, in case a Kodak moment arises. No guilt there."

"Of course not," Luke muttered sarcastically.

"Well, Luke, I might just give you my camera so you can take pictures for me," Rory mused.

Luke rolled his eyes. "What happened to text messaging? Or e mailing, or however you normally send pictures of yourself making a stupid face to Rory?"

"What the heck are you talking about?" Lorelai asked, pretending to be ignorant as to what Luke was referencing.

Rory grinned. "Those cute pictures of you in the blue shirt, that you took on the computer, that I put on Facebook… remember those?"

Lorelai raised her eyebrows. "OH! Those! Yes, I remember now. We can still do that, we just have to be really good about sending them to little miss Picky over there."

"Yeah, you better send me some really cute ones! How else am I supposed to brag?" Rory said, shrugging.

"Anyway, this is Doula's page," Luke said, changing the subject.

"Doula who is adorable. She just doesn't look like a Doula. She looks like a… Molly," Lorelai mused.

"Well, T.J. doesn't look like a T.J., but he is," Rory replied.

"Actually, to tell you the truth, T.J. is actually named Gary," Luke explained.

Lorelai looked at Rory, and Rory stared back. It was only moments before the two began to laugh for what must have been the hundredth time that day. "Gary? Seriously? Gary?" Rory repeated.

"Unfortunately, yes," Luke confirmed.

Lorelai put a strand of hair behind her ear. "How the heck… did he get T.J. out of GARY?" Lorelai asked, still trying to catch her breath.

"Well, I asked him the same question, and he told me that he hated the name Gary, so he took a more common name to fit in with the kids at school," Luke explained.

"How the heck did T.J. fit in even though he changed his name?" Lorelai asked.

Rory shrugged. "Maybe he was really good at sports," she suggested, trying to give T.J. some credit.

"Uh, T.J. is the biggest scatterbrained klutz I've ever met," Luke corrected.

"Maybe he was Prom King or something," Rory mused.

"I just think he was the person everyone liked to make fun of," Lorelai said. "I like him, but I'd think he had a heck of a time in grade school."

"Especially with a name like Gary, you'd think that they'd give Doula a… pretty name, not that Doula isn't," Rory continued.

Luke sighed. "Well, it is Liz and T.J. we're talking about," he insisted.

Lorelai giggled. "True. So tell us about Doula. She just turned two, is that correct?"

"And you say Rory's the journalist? What's with the questions, you know how old she is," Luke replied.

"I don't know, I just love that age. It's such a sweet age, where they're so fun to play with, and they're attached to you… until they realize they're two, then it's the 'terrible twos' but Rory never went through that, so I ignore that phase," Lorelai insisted.

"She's a good kid," Luke said.

Rory smiled. "You know, I remember one time I was home, on vacation, and the two of you were out, Liz asked me to watch her."

Lorelai gasped. "I remember that! Rory, take it away. Tell Luke what happened that day."

"There's not much to tell. I babysat Doula for awhile. No big deal," Rory insisted.

Lorelai pouted and crossed her arms. "Luke had better have some really good stories about his adorable niece. Come on, Luke, go!"

"Jeez, all right, all right! Liz and T.J. brought Doula over for a visit when you went out to surprise Rory on the campaign trail," Luke explained.

"And you never told me the whole story," Lorelai chided. "Explain. Pronto. Wow, you're a slow poke today, Luke!"

"I'm going to, if you'll give me half a chance," Luke insisted.

Lorelai smiled. "Do tell."

"They brought her over here, and she didn't want to leave," Luke started.

_Luke opened the door and outside were Liz, T.J., and Doula. "Hi," Luke said, obviously not expecting their company. _

_"Hiya, Luke. We heard it through the grapevine that the cat's away, so now the mice can play," T.J. said, letting himself in the house. _

_"What?" Luke asked, raising his eyebrows. _

_Liz smiled. "He means that since we heard that Lorelai was away, we figured you may enjoy some company!" _

_"Well, that's very nice of you, I guess," Luke said, still not sure what to make of the entire situation. _

_"Here, I'll let you hold Doula," Liz said, handing Doula off to Luke. _

_Luke took Doula, who fell asleep almost immediately in Luke's arms. "What brings you guys over here?" _

_"Just a little visit for Doula to see Uncle Luke! She adores you so much!" Liz gushed. _

_T.J. nodded. "It's true. She adores Luke. She says 'Luke' all the time. When she's awake, that is. She's not saying it now, because she's not a person who talks in her sleep." _

_Liz laughed. "She does like saying 'Luke', and I know you're going to spoil her rotten when she gets older… well, not like you don't already, I take that back," Liz insisted, seating herself on the couch next to T.J. _

_Luke sighed and sat down, trying not to wake Doula. "Seriously, guys, why are you here?" Luke asked. _

_Liz looked at T.J., who looked back at her with a shrug. Liz took a deep breath. "Well, Luke, I wanted to ask you for a teeny tiny favor." _

_"A teeny tiny favor? What's teeny tiny to you may not be for me, you know that, right?" Luke asked. _

_Liz nodded. "That's why we wanted to give you an idea of what was coming in advance. See, T.J. and I have to go to the Renaissance faire reunion," she started. _

_"In Maine," T.J. added. _

_"… In Maine," Liz continued, "And we can't bring Doula. We asked, but they said no. So, we beseech thee to mind our offspring whilst we are abroad." _

_T.J. shook his head. "Liz, your renaissance speak is getting rusty," T.J. insisted. _

_"I know! I'm really not liking it. It's like an accent, I suppose, it comes back. Anyway, would you, big brother? Please? You'd really be doing us a huge favor," Liz begged. _

_Luke sighed. "How long will you guys be gone?" _

_"Two and a half days. Please?" Liz asked. _

_Luke nodded. "All right, we'll have her here." _

_"Thanks, Luke, you're a good guy," T.J. said, reaching for Doula. _

_Liz sighed. "T.J., we don't want it to seem like we're too anxious, just coming over here to ask him for a favor, then take off with Doula!" _

_"What, I thought that was the plan! Don't change the plan without telling Stan!" T.J. insisted. _

_Liz rolled her eyes. "Just because Stanley is your middle name, that doesn't mean we can call you Stan. The whole T.J. to Gary thing is confusing enough," Liz said, reaching for Doula this time. _

_Doula woke up and reached for Luke, immediately recognizing him. Liz waved and quickly exited as Doula cried for her uncle. _

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "How could they take Doula away from her favorite uncle? That's cruel."

"Well, we got her for that entire weekend," Luke replied.

"That was a good weekend," Lorelai said, raising her eyebrows suggestively.

Rory covered her ears. "Ew! Dirty!" she groaned.

"It was a fun weekend, not just… not in a dirty way. We had a good time," Luke insisted.

"You guys watched Doula for the weekend, and then…" Rory said, trying to get either Lorelai or Luke to elaborate on the story.

Lorelai smiled. "Well, Luke was at the diner for most of the first day, but when he came home, it was really adorable to watch the two of them together."

"She did that on her own, Lorelai, I didn't teach her that," Luke protested.

Rory grinned. "Luke corrupted Doula? Spill."

"It wasn't a bad thing. You'll have to hear the whole story," Luke insisted.

_Luke walked in as Lorelai held Doula on her lap, reading a story. Lorelai turned to Luke. "Hey, there, Uncle Luke! You've walked in on story time with Auntie Lorelai and Doula!" _

_"Well, I won't interrupt," Luke said, planting a kiss on Lorelai's cheek and on Doula's head. "I'll leave you two alone, the ball game's on anyway." _

_Lorelai shut the book. "And they all lived happily ever after, the end!" she rushed, handing Doula to Luke. "Let her watch with you! I really need a ten minute break, please?" _

_Luke agreed. "Fine," he said, turning on the TV and letting Doula sit next to him. He found the remote and turned it to the station that the Red Sox were playing on and turned to Doula. "You like baseball?" he asked, pulling her onto his lap. _

_Doula smiled. "Baseball," she repeated. _

_"Oh, so you are a sports fan. Well, now, I underestimated you, I think," Luke teased. _

_Doula pointed to the TV. "Red Sox!" she said. _

_Luke chuckled. "Does your dad watch baseball? I bet he does, because you can't come up with this stuff on your own. You can't even read yet." _

_Lorelai came downstairs after a shower to see the two curled up on the couch watching the game. Lorelai waved to Doula, who waved back. "Lo lo, Red Sox!" she said, pointing to the TV. _

_"She still can't say Lorelai, but she can say Red Sox. Hmm, something's a little fishy going on around here, Luke," Lorelai said, winking at him. _

_"I didn't do it, I swear! T.J. must have," Luke said. _

_Lorelai nodded, pretending to believe Luke. "Mmhm. Sure." _

Luke crossed his arms. "I didn't teach her that, T.J. did!"

Lorelai put her hand on Luke's arm. "I know, I know. I was just teasing you, that's all. Pushing your buttons, pulling your leg…"

"Well, you're going to teach your kid the same thing, so, it will be true eventually," Rory mused. "I mean, jeez, god forbid I say the word that starts with a 'Y' and ends with an 'ees'. I'd get the Luke Danes 'death stare' if I did," she teased.

"Ha ha, very funny," Luke replied.

"Actually, it really is funny," Lorelai replied. "Who's next?"


	19. Lane and Zach

**Lane (Kim) Van Gerbig and Zach Van Gerbig**

"Aww, Lane made it into your album!" Rory gushed. "And Zach and the boys!"

"Well, technically, they're family, you know. Luke is their godfather," Lorelai said.

Rory smiled. "That's right. Steve and Kwan are so funny. They're good kids."

"I'm wondering what kinds of stories you have about Lane and Zach," Lorelai mused. "This picture's cute, of the two of them in the diner, by the way."

Rory leaned in to look at the picture. "That is a cute picture, Zach's face is so funny! But anyway, stories?"

Luke shrugged. "Well, I've worked with both of them, so I have stories."

"Oh, first, did you ever know Mr. Kim?" Lorelai asked.

Luke nodded. "I met him once. Then he moved to Korea for his work, and Mrs. Kim stayed here so Lane would be able to stay in school here."

"Logical," Lorelai replied. "Okay, one story about Lane, and one about Zach. That sounds like a fantastically good idea."

"I think so, too. Should be entertaining," Rory agreed.

Luke sighed. "Okay, I've known Lane since she was born. I'd do jobs around the house occasionally for Mrs. Kim while Mr. Kim was in Korea."

"Other people know you're handy? Darn. They didn't name your toolbox, did they?" Lorelai asked, giggling.

He shook his head. "No, they didn't, as a matter of fact. That was your job. So one day, Lane was maybe seven or eight, and she watched me fix their radiator."

_Luke opened his toolbox and grabbed the wrench. This wouldn't be a jobt hat was too intense, he'd be out in fifteen minutes or so. As he started to work on the radiator, he heard footsteps on the stairs. He turned around to find Lane sitting on the steps, watching him work._

"_This isn't going to be too exciting," Luke warned her._

_Lane shrugged. "That's okay. I'll just listen to some Pearl Jam and watch you work."_

_Luke raised his eyebrows. "Pearl Jam? Your mom lets you listen to Pearl Jam?"_

_Lane looked down. "No, but what she doesn't know can't hurt her, right? The tape is labeled 'Christian Music' so she won't get suspicious."_

"_I see," Luke said, reaching in the tool box again._

"_I hide lots of things from her. She doesn't let me do much of anything, so I have to sneak around," Lane reasoned._

"_Is that such a great idea?" Luke asked._

_Lane shrugged. "It won't be if she finds out, but for now, it's working."_

"_I see," Luke said, closing his tool box. _

"_You won't tell her, will you?" Lane asked._

_Luke shook his head. "Just make sure not to pin anything on me if you get caught."_

"_Deal," Lane agreed, running up the stairs._

Rory smiled. "I wonder if Lane remembers that," she said.

Luke shrugged. "You should ask her."

"I think I will. "I think I will. I kind of like to realize that she got into all of this while I was her friend, you know, I feel sort of like I witnessed a metamorphosis!"

Lorelai grinned. "Lane's a good kid. She's a great mom, and she's a really good drummer."

"You got that right," Rory agreed.

"And Zach's pretty good at what he does, too," Lorelai insisted. "Except he tried to hit on me one time, when the band first started playing in the garage."

Rory giggled. "I remember that. Luke, tell us a really good Zach story!"

"Which story would you like to hear?" Luke asked. "And Zach tried to hit on you?"

Lorelai shrugged. "Yeah, but he was young, and not with Lane, and you and I weren't together. But, you know, that's the past. Any story you tell will be fascinating, I'm sure. There's plenty of them, and I'm pretty sure you have some good ones," she insisted, trying to avoid the subject of Zach flirting with her.

"Okay, how about… Zach's first busy day at the diner?" Luke asked.

"Sounds like a perfectly good story if I do say so myself," Rory said.

Lorelai nodded. "Yeah, sounds good to me. Zach's first busy day at the diner."

"Okay, it was the lunch rush, and everyone decided to come to the diner for lunch. Why, I have no idea. But they did."

_Zach ran over to the table by the window, taking the customer's order and running back. "I need refills for coffee at the table over there," Zach said, pointing to a different table._

_Luke sighed. "Zach, calm down, the coffee's being made."_

"_Yeah, dude, but they asked for it like two minutes ago," Zach protested._

"_They can wait for a little while, Zach, don't worry," Luke said, attempting to reassure Zach._

"_Dude, but what if they don't tip?"_

_Luke rolled his eyes. "There are some who do and some who don't. You learn which ones those are awfully quickly. Can you give this to Kirk?"_

_Zach nodded. "Sure," he said. _

_Kirk inspected his plate upon receiving it, handing it back to Zach. "This isn't what I ordered," he insisted._

"_Yeah, dude, it is. Macaroni and cheese and a PB&J on the side," Zach recited._

"_No, take it back," Kirk insisted._

_Zach rolled his eyes. "Fine," he said._

_Kirk reached out for the plate. "No, Zach! I was just testing you."_

_Zach took a deep breath. "Phew. Okay, that was scary."_

"_You're going to have some really picky customers, I'm just making sure you're prepared. It's almost like a fire drill," Kirk said, reaching for his fork. "Thank you for not beating me up."_

_Zach shook his head and went behind the counter. "Dude's crazy," he said, referring to Kirk._

"_Tell me about it," Luke replied._

Lorelai laughed. "Kirk is insane. Zach knows how to call them."

Rory smiled. "He's such a good judge of character, and he can guess a person's personality before he knows them really well. Before he knew me really well, he guessed that I was a book enthusiast, and that I was really smart."

"Or he's just a good guesser," Lorelai teased.

"And Lane and Zach are such a cute couple. I love seeing them together, because they're really in love. And Lane normally doesn't go for the type like Zach, but it worked out. Their boys are so cute," Rory insisted.

Luke nodded. "They're really nice people. They were really a lot of help at the diner, and they're two of the best employees I've ever had."

Rory smiled. "So who else do you have in your album? There aren't too many pages left," she pointed out.


	20. Emily Gilmore

****

**Emily Gilmore **

As Luke turned the page, Lorelai squinted at a picture in the top left hand corner and gasped. "Is that a picture of you and MY MOTHER? Why's she in here?" Lorelai asked, completely in shock.

Luke nodded. "Yes, of course that's Emily. That was taken at the wedding. She's in here purely by accident, but I suppose she belongs in here, because technically, she's family, so she has a right."

Rory giggled. "That's actually a nice picture. She's not very… formal looking. She looks really happy, rather amused. Luke, you must have made her laugh."

Luke looked down at the picture, a candid shot, of Emily and Luke sitting at one of the tables that was set up in the town square for the wedding. They seemed to be sharing a very civil conversation. Both looked comfortable, not nervous at all, and Emily was actually smiling.

Lorelai nodded. "It is a nice picture. Can I keep it for blackmail, so I can show her that she actually likes you?"

"She likes me, and I don't think it's going to be needed for blackmail," Luke insisted. "I know I've said it, too, but these pictures aren't just for blackmail."

"Well, I'll just have a mental image to remind her, so we can discuss it on Friday at Friday night dinner," Lorelai insisted.

Luke shrugged. "Well, I don't think she'll really need it. Emily and I have… sort of an understanding."

"Understanding? What sort of understanding might this be? Was there money or a hit man involved? Or the DAR? Because if that's the case, I really need to get you some help, to get out of my mother's insane world," Lorelai teased.

"I'm not a woman, why would I be in the DAR?" Luke asked. "Doesn't that stand for 'Daughters of the American Revolution'?"

Rory smiled. "Maybe there's an SAR? And they would call it the Sons of the American Revolution? Is anyone in your family a revolutionary war veteran, Luke?"

"Veteran, yes, Revolutionary War… questionable," Luke replied. "I'm sure re enactors don't count, unfortunately."

Rory shrugged. "Well, you have connections through us, I suppose, if you really wanted to be in the fake SAR."

"I'll keep that in mind," Luke replied.

"She really seems to like you in this picture. She's very genuinely interested in what you have to say, Luke," Rory pointed out.

Luke nodded. "Yeah, she was a lot less… rigid than she normally is that day. She really did reach out, she tried really hard to be nice, and she has tried… sometimes it backfires, but that's the effort we're looking for, right?"

"Aww, look at Luke! You are now our little optimist! What a glass half full kind of guy!" Rory gushed.

"What happened to the 'I hate jam hands' Luke?" Lorelai asked. "The 'I hate Taylor Doose' Luke, the 'I'm mad at the world' Luke?"

"Well, he still hates Taylor, and Kirk still annoys him, so I think we can be reassured that this Luke isn't an imposter or anything like that," Rory replied.

"I'm still the same person, Lorelai, I've just…"

"Become even more of a softie than we originally thought you were? Broken down? Softened up in your old age?" Lorelai suggested.

Luke rolled his eyes. "No, none of the above happened, actually. I just stopped taking things so seriously, accepting things that I can't change."

Lorelai smiled, patting Luke's knee. "That works, too."

"What were you guys talking about, Luke?" Rory asked, brushing her bangs out of her eyes.

Luke cleared his throat. "We were talking about… a lot of different things that day. It was a nice talk, definitely."

"I'd kill to have a nice talk with my mother. Seriously, Luke, you're her favorite. And for the longest time I thought it was humanly impossible for her to like anyone I dated," Lorelai pointed out.

Rory nodded. "I agree. Grandma really does enjoy your company. So does Grandpa. I know Grandpa loves it when you visit. He mentions you in virtually every e mail he sends me, telling me how lucky I am to have you as a step father. Seriously."

"Well, he's a nice guy, and he wasn't so hard on me once he learned that I had good intentions, and that I wouldn't break up with your mother again. Anyway, your grandmother and I talked about a little of everything. She mostly talked, I mostly listened, you know how she is," Luke explained.

"_Hello, Luke," Emily said, approaching Luke's table._

_Luke stood up. "Hi, Emily, here, have a seat," he insisted, pulling out a chair for her to sit in._

_She smiled at him politely, seating herself and turning to face him. "It was a lovely ceremony. I'm sure Lorelai told you about how… hesitant I was about having such a large, important function in the town square. But it's a beautiful day and everything went very smoothly. It was a wonderful ceremony that I was honored to attend."_

"_Yes, she mentioned your concerns… and it did turn out very nicely. We appreciate your input and your… enthusiasm about our wedding," Luke replied, trying to be polite. "And we also appreciate the fact that you came. It meant a lot to Lorelai, I know." _

_Emily shook her head. "Enthusiasm wasn't quite the word I would use… but that's nice of you. Even after the types of things Lorelai must have said after coming home from a bridal shop."_

"_Well, she was a little stressed, but it's all over now, she can enjoy it."_

"_I'm sure you were a big help in all of this as well. I haven't… been eager to praise you for your mediation skills, or anything else for that matter… but I wanted to let you know that… you're a good man, Luke," Emily admitted._

_Luke sighed. "Well, that means a lot coming from you. I appreciate it."_

"_The chuppah you built was exquisite. How did you learn to do that?" Emily inquired, turning to look at the chuppah._

_Luke shrugged. "Well, I just saw a picture of it, and I thought Lorelai deserved a chuppah like that for her wedding. That was… awhile ago, before we got together," he said, sparing the details of her relationship with Max, and the wedding situation._

"_Your parents would be proud of you, I'm sure," she said. "But if you do anything to hurt Lorelai…"_

_Luke let out a slight smile. "I know, I'd be in deep trouble. Don't worry, I'll take care of her."_

"_Good." Emily said._

Lorelai looked at Rory. "So you determined that there wasn't an impostor Luke… but Emily, on the other hand…"

"Mom! Come on, Grandma really does like Luke!" Rory insisted. "She told me so."

"When did this happen?" Lorelai asked, crossing her arms. "I hate being left out of secrets, like your phone ringing about 500 times since you've gotten here!"

As if on cue, Rory's phone rang again. She looked down at it and turned red. "Uh, sorry, Mom, that was… weird. I'll be back."

Lorelai stuck her tongue out at Rory as she walked in the kitchen to take the call. She turned to

Luke and rolled her eyes. "I hate being left out of secrets," she muttered.

"Maybe it's not even a secret. Maybe it's the Courant, asking her if she wants a view at her desk with her new job," Luke suggested, trying to make Lorelai feel better.

Lorelai sighed. "You're right. I just like knowing secrets."

"But you can't keep them, that's for sure," Luke shot back.

Lorelai gasped. "You are terrible," she said, kissing him.

He pulled away and gave a cocky grin. "I must not be that terrible if you're willing to kiss me after I said that," he teased.

"Back. Sorry, I turned it off, it won't happen again. So, yeah, Grandma told me that she likes

Luke!" Rory insisted.

Lorelai smiled. "The gloves come off! I knew you'd jump in and add a story or two before this was all over. You and your stories."

"Me and MY stories? Okay, Jane Austen, you've penned yourself some novels over the years," Rory teased.

"Oh, but my handwriting is not nearly as formal," Lorelai shot back. "I'd get the ink all over my hands from that quill pen thing."

Luke rolled his eyes. "You're talking about telling stories, with words, yet you're using metaphors and references about writing them on paper. You confuse me."

"It's secret code for 'Luke is so dreamy', if you HAVE to know," Lorelai said, letting out a sigh.

Rory giggled. "Oh, Luke, I'm your number one fan! Will you sign my butt so I can get it tattooed on me, for forever and ever?"

"People actually do that, you know," Lorelai said to Luke.

Luke shuddered. "Creepy people do that. People who belong in mental hospitals, people who are certifiably nuts."

"How insulting!" Rory said, pouting.

"Oh, honey, he didn't mean you. He meant fan girl Rory. The one who asked him for his autograph on your hiney," Lorelai insisted.

Rory smiled. "Okay. I feel better now. Anyway, to avoid making Luke really angry, Grandma and I talked on the phone awhile back. She told me about all the Hartford gossip and then started talking about you two."

"… _And come to find out, her son Brennan worked for Luke for a short period of time. Those people are simply disgusting. They're almost uncivilized!" Emily ranted._

_Rory stifled a giggle when she thought back to the 'butt napkins' incident. But she wasn't successful._

"_What is so funny?" Emily demanded._

_Rory sighed. "Brennan served me and Mom one day, when we ate at the diner, and he gave us napkins he had… in his back pocket," she explained, censoring the story as she spoke. "And we complained to Luke, and Luke finally fired him after a few people said some things about him."_

"_As he should! That's completely unsanitary, doing such a thing!" Emily said in horror. _

"_I agree. And apparently, so did Luke," Rory replied._

"_It's good to know that Luke has some service standards set for his diner. Some diners are filthy, disgusting establishments, and they violate more health codes than the city even has! But Luke's is at least up to code," Emily continued._

_Rory smiled. "I think that was a compliment to Luke… in some weird way?"_

"_Of course it was meant as a compliment, Rory, you don't have to interpret my tone as you do your mother's. Or even as your mother views mine. I don't always wish to attack Luke, he's my son in law. I was simply saying that I'm relieved to know my son in law keeps his place of business up to standard."_

"_He works hard at it," Rory said. _

"_And I also admire hard work. Luke is a very hard worker, and he does well to provide for your mother, and for April. He always has thought of others before himself, which is a very admirable quality."_

"_So Luke isn't so bad after all, is he?" Rory asked._

_Emily huffed. "I never said he was a leper, Rory, I simply said that I wasn't very fond of him at times."_

"_I see," Rory said, trying again not to laugh._

Lorelai poked Luke. "Emily likes you. You're doomed."

"Last I checked, that was supposed to be a good thing," Luke muttered, trying to turn the page.

Lorelai grabbed his hand. "No, no, don't turn yet. We're not finished with this page."

"According to? I thought I got to explain what I wanted to, like you did with that book of yours," Luke grunted.

"Rule number one? Lorelai is always right. Rule number 2? If Lorelai is ever wrong, see rule 1," Lorelai teased.

"You and your rules," Luke groaned.


	21. Richard Gilmore

****

**Richard Gilmore **

Lorelai pointed to a picture on the same page. "This is a nice picture of Dad," she said, looking at Luke and giving him a slight smile.

Rory leaned in to look at the picture. "That is a cute picture. I didn't know Grandpa would be in your album, too!"

"Well, let's think about this logically, Rory. Where there's Emily, there has to be Richard, right?" Lorelai reasoned.

"Usually, unless they go through that whole Penilynn Lott dinner fiasco again," Rory said, rolling her eyes.

Luke adjusted his baseball cap. "Who the hell is Penilynn Lott?" he asked. "And why did Richard go out to dinner with her?"

"Penilynn Lott is my almost Mommy," Lorelai said, grinning.

"Translation? Grandpa's ex girlfriend that caused some intense arguing on Grandma and Grandpa's part. Mom calls Penilynn Lott her 'almost mommy' because of that," Rory explained.

Luke turned to Lorelai and shook his head. "You're crazier than I originally thought you were," he teased.

"I love being crazy. Normal is so overrated, you realize this, right? And what the heck is 'normal'? Do 'they' all sit at a table and think these things up?" Lorelai mused.

"And that starts the age old debate of 'who are _they,_ anyway?' and it gets to be one of those conversations we have for hours," Rory insisted.

Luke took Lorelai's hand as a gentle sign that he wanted to move on. "Yes, this is a picture of you and your dad, after the wedding."

"He looks very handsome in that tux," Rory pointed out.

Lorelai smiled. "It is a nice picture. Invisible post it goes right here," she said, pretending to put a post it note on the picture.

"Yeah, your dad's a good guy. I think all this time he was a little easier to deal with than your mother," Luke reasoned.

"Well, Grandpa's a reasonable guy as long as you're honest with him. He knows that you would take good care of us, because if you didn't, he knows darn well we'd starve," Rory teased.

Lorelai raised her eyebrows and turned to Rory, giving her an apologetic look. "Ooh, that reminds me, sorry, hon, but you're roped into Friday Night Dinner with us next week."

Rory shrugged. "That's all right, I kind of miss it. Don't shoot," she said, holding her arms up in mock self defense.

"But the good news is that it's the last one I'm required to attend before the baby comes," Lorelai said, clasping her hands together and waving them on either side of her, pretending to be victorious.

"It will be nice to have a break," Luke added.

Rory smiled. "I think I'll go while you two are gone, to keep them company. I owe them a few dinners, anyway. I've been away for so long."

"That's my practical offspring for ya!" Lorelai teased. "And I'm sure they would love to catch up with you after you've been away for so long."

"Richard showed up at the diner a few weeks ago," Luke informed Rory. "He likes to brag about you to me, and sometimes he shows up to talk. But this time, he wanted to talk to everyone but me."

Lorelai raised her eyebrows. "This is a good story."

"He wanted to get to know the town better, because he figured he'd be around more once the baby comes," Luke started.

_Luke turned and looked at who was coming in the door of the diner. Richard Gilmore straightened his bow tie and walked up to the counter. "Hello, there, Luke, is any table acceptable for me to seat myself at?"_

_Luke nodded. "Sure, have a seat wherever you'd like, I'll be over in a few minutes."_

"_All righty," Richard said, seating himself at Kirk's table. "Hello, young man, how are you?"_

_Kirk's eyes widened. "Uh… I… uh…"_

"_Are you a friend of Lorelai and Luke's? I presume you know my granddaughter Rory, former editor of the Yale Daily News and correspondent for an online magazine," Richard continued._

"_Yes, I do," Kirk said, panicked. _

_Luke walked over to the table and couldn't help but inwardly laugh at the seating arrangement that Richard had created. "Richard, any table is really fine, there's no need to consolidate." _

"_I was just getting to know this young man. I've been to town a few times now, and I have yet to introduce myself to the majority of the town. Who might you be?" Richard asked, directing his attention to Kirk on the last part of his sentence._

_Kirk stood up perfectly straight at the table, next to his chair, and saluted Richard. "Kirk Gleason, sir," he said, staring straight ahead._

_Richard chuckled slightly and gave a sympathetic smile. "At ease, my boy."_

_  
Kirk sat at the table again and Luke escorted Richard to another table. "Kirk's a little… odd," Luke explained. _

"_What's a small town without some local color? It's completely fine. I just don't feel like I know a lot about the town," Richard mused._

_Luke sighed. "Well, then, you should come to one of the crazy festivals they have. You'll learn a lot at one of those, that's for sure."_

"_Festivals?" Richard asked, genuinely interested._

"_Well, we have festivals as a town, usually for a strange holiday, fundraising purposes, or, if the town's really bored, just for the heck of it. There's always something going on. I'll have Lorelai give you a heads up when the next one comes around," Luke explained._

_Richard chuckled. "That sounds fascinating! I'm looking forward to it!"_

Rory grinned. "So Grandpa wanted to stop by for a festival, huh? That would be really funny!"

"Oh, it was," Lorelai added.

Rory looked at Luke in disappointment. "No, I missed it? Aww. I'm disappointed! I really wanted to be here for something hysterical like that."

"Oh, God, was it funny! Grandma and Grandpa came to a town meeting!" Lorelai revealed.

Rory raised her eyebrows. "And I didn't hear about this because?" she pressed.

Luke gave Rory a sympathetic smile. "That was right when your phone broke for that week. And your mom wrote everything down that she wanted to tell you, but she lost the box full of notes."

Rory nodded. "Oh, I remember that week. That was one intensely awful week."

"For you, or for me?" Lorelai asked, crossing her arms and leaning back on the couch.

"Or me?" Luke added.

Rory hugged Lorelai. "I'm sorry. I e mailed you as much as I could!"

Lorelai smiled, putting her hands on her stomach. "I know, sweets, it's just that hearing your voice was better, and this one doesn't talk back quite yet."

"That was a rough week on all of us," Rory agreed.

"So your grandfather and grandmother came to a town meeting," Luke started.

Lorelai jumped in, interrupting Luke's train of thought. "It was a classic Luke versus Taylor match."

Luke rolled his eyes. "Taylor was being unreasonable."

"Isn't he always?" Rory asked, taking Luke's side.

Lorelai smiled. "You are a little traitor, aren't you, Benedict Arnold?"

"So your grandparents met us outside Miss Patty's studio, right before the meeting was going to start," Luke continued.

_Luke took Lorelai's hand as they walked to Miss Patty's. He wasn't thrilled about attending this town meeting, but he had to, especially now that Richard and Emily were coming. For fear of not looking like he was involved in the town, and for fear of being yelled at for other reasons, Luke decided that he would attend the meeting. While they waited to meet up with Emily and Richard, Lorelai chattered on endlessly about what she imagined would happen with her parents mixing in with a town meeting, and just as she came up with 'her best' scenario, Richard and Emily caught up with the pair._

"_Luke, Lorelai, hello!" Richard said, taking his hand out of his jacket pocket to shake Luke's hand._

_Luke retuned the gesture. "Hello, Richard, hello, Emily, how are you?"_

"_We're just fine, thank you, Luke. Lorelai, what on Earth did you bring?" Emily asked, motioning to Lorelai's doggy bag from Luke's._

_She grinned. "Lots of food. Fries, a burger, and extra pickles!"_

"_Why on earth would you bring that to a town meeting?" Emily pressed._

_Lorelai shrugged. "It's more of a vaudeville show, or a variety hour than a meeting. And plus, I'm eating for two, mind you."_

"_Honestly, Lorelai, your pregnancy cravings are no excuse for poor etiquette. At least you didn't bring a milkshake, I suppose," Emily muttered._

_Lorelai produced a Luke's 'to go' cup and took a sip out of it. "If I can't have coffee, might as well get my energy somehow, huh?"_

"_Let's go inside, shall we?" Richard asked, rubbing his hands together in excitement. "I've been looking forward to this all week long."_

"_Here we go," Lorelai said, rolling her eyes. _

_The four entered the meeting, and it had just started. Taylor banged the gavel on the podium yet again and silenced the crowd. "Ladies and gentlemen, I want to get this meeting over with quickly, as some are staying up to watch the pilot episode of Kirk's cable access show."_

_Lorelai snorted. "That should be interesting," she said, elbowing Luke._

"_Lorelai, shhh!" Emily hissed._

_Lorelai leaned in to whisper to her mother. "No one follows etiquette at these meetings, just relax and say something if you want. Just stand up when you do, so Taylor can give you the floor."_

_Emily rolled her eyes and turned to Richard, who was already enthused by the activity._

"_The only item that needs to be discussed on the agenda tonight is the proposal of Stars Hollow's walkathon," Taylor continued._

"_Walkathon?" Zach asked._

"_The walkathon is when everyone in Stars Hollow will walk backwards all day to raise money for the bridge," Taylor explained._

_Luke rolled his eyes. "That's a safety hazard, Taylor!"_

"_How can one possibly walk backwards, all day?" Richard asked. "If someone isn't coordinated as it is, that could be potentially dangerous."_

_Emily groaned and put a hand over her face in embarrassment, while Lorelai watched the exchange like a tennis match._

"_Okay, so that idea has been shot down, priming you for the next idea… the first annual Stars Hollow craft day!" Taylor announced. _

_Lorelai smiled, and gave a 'thumbs up' sign. "Way more my speed, Taylor."_

"_This craft day would take place in the Stars Hollow High gymnasium… wait a minute, people, you're accepting this garbage? Honestly, I thought you, Lorelai, of all people, would be willing to accept something a little quirky and fun!" Taylor ranted._

_Lorelai raised her eyebrows. "Not something that's going to injure me. We could always do something quirky, yet safe!"_

"_What about the Stars Hollow Day of Silence?" Kirk suggested. "No one talks all day. Everyone buys tickets, and you have five to start with. When someone utters a word, you take their ticket and write your name on it. Then you put the tickets in a big lottery and you pick a grand prize winner."_

"_I'm out," Lorelai said, raising her hands._

_Richard smiled. "Silence is golden, young lady."_

"_How am I supposed to run my business, Taylor? I have to communicate with my customers and with my employees!" Luke ranted._

_Lorelai leaned in to Emily. "Watch that vein in Luke's neck get really big now. French fry?"_

_Emily declined the French fry, but pointed to Luke's neck as the vein popped out. "That?"_

_Lorelai giggled. "That's it!"_

"_He's very passionate, isn't he?" Emily asked._

"_He is."_

Rory's attempts not to laugh were unsuccessful. "I'm so sorry I missed that one. Really! I just don't even know where to begin…"

"You missed a really good day, kid. I'm so glad you're moving back, so you don't miss anything, ever again," Lorelai insisted.

"I'm glad, too. Those must have been some fantastic moments I missed," Rory mused.

"They were, they were perfect Kodak moment material. Or Thanksgiving stories, one or the other. Or both," Lorelai insisted.

"Who's next, Luke, turn the page!" Rory said, pointing to the album and once again including Luke in the conversation.

Lorelai smiled. "Turn the page! Turn the page!" she chanted. "Luke! Luke! Luke!"

Luke turned to her, and she stopped chanting as he turned the page.


	22. Lorelai GilmoreDanes

**Lorelai Gilmore-Danes**

"Aww, Luke, you really did put us in here, didn't you?" Lorelai squealed, wiping a tear from her eye. "I'm totally honored!"

Luke shrugged. "You guys are my family. Well, technically, you always have been, but the wedding made it official."

Rory smiled. "And you totally snagged pictures from our picture box for this."

He sighed, handing the album to Rory to look at. "I made copies, I wouldn't take the originals. I know how you guys are about your pictures."

Lorelai raised her eyebrows. "So the organizing fairy didn't put the pictures in that nice neat order, did she? It was you."

"You're the one that came to the conclusion that there are pen elves and organizing fairies, what was I going to do to stop you? Nothing. Once you come up with these things, there's no turning back," Luke insisted.

Rory turned to Lorelai, curious. "Pen elves?"

"You know how you have those pens that you love? And then you lose one? Pen elves," Lorelai said.

"Huh. That could really explain the loss of my fourth package of pens in a month and a half," Rory reasoned.

"You're as crazy as your mother," Luke teased.

Rory grinned. "Wow, I'm doing something right, then."

Luke sat next to Lorelai on the couch. He held out his hands for Rory to pass him the album, and pointed to the picture in the top right hand corner. It was of Lorelai at the Winter Carnival, not long after she and Luke met. She was holding her arms out as though she was trying to display her booth, grinning in pride at the booth she'd created.

"My first winter carnival," Lorelai said with a smile. "I loved my booth that year. I still think it was the best, even though I came up with the idea about twenty minutes before the carnival started."

Luke smiled. "I almost asked you out that night," he admitted, taking her hand in his.

Rory squealed. "That's so cute, Luke, it was snowing that night, she would have LOVED it."

Lorelai sighed. "I would have, Rory's right."

"I remember walking over to your booth, kind of by accident, but mostly on purpose."

_Luke watched as Lorelai awarded a prize to the little boy with the green hat, and smiled to himself. His boots crunched in the snow as he walked to her booth. "Hey," he said as he approached._

"_Hey yourself," she said sweetly. "Want to try and beat Kirk at 'Hungry, Hungry Hippos'? That's my booth."_

_Luke shrugged. "Nah, I'm not exactly a hippo maniac."_

_Lorelai giggled. "You know, you can be awfully funny when you want to. You're not the big, gruff, ogre people make you out to be. But then again, you wouldn't want to ruin that reputation, would you?"_

_Luke gave a slight smile. "Ah, you know, I wouldn't want to have to blow my cover. For all you know, I'm actually a secret agent, or I'm in witness protection or something."_

"_You are a mystery to me, Luke Danes, I never knew exactly how much I… don't know about you," Lorelai said, pulling at the finger of one of her pink gloves._

"_I'm not really that interesting. I've lived here all my life, my parents passed away when I was pretty young… that's about it," Luke offered._

"_Oh, well, that's more than I… knew before, I'm so sorry about your parents, Luke," she said softly._

_Luke shook his head. "You didn't know, it's all right."_

"_I feel like I don't ever ask about you, and since I've known you for awhile now, I should know more, and ask more," Lorelai said._

_Luke sat at the chair at the end of her booth. "It's okay, I don't expect you to."_

_She took a seat next to him. "Well, I feel bad."_

"_Well, seriously, don't," Luke insisted._

_Lorelai sighed. "Okay. I won't then. What are you doing here, anyway? I thought it was kind of taboo for you to go near one of these things," she said, adjusting her glasses._

"_Uh, well, I came by… to, you know, ask you something," he said._

_Lorelai smiled. "Ask away, I am the magic eight ball. Only I'm the pink one, because the black one used to get stuck and you'd have the same answer for three weeks."_

_Luke chuckled. "Okay, then, uh…"_

"_Lorelai!" Kirk whined, coming up behind her._

_Lorelai jumped, startled by Kirk's sudden appearance. She instinctively moved toward Luke, until she found out that it was just Kirk. She put her hand to her heart. "Kirk, I thought that we were working on this. you need to announce yourself, and walk in front of people," Lorelai spat._

"_Sorry. I want a rematch. I need your super special secret surprise prize!" he insisted, crossing his arms. _

"_Kirk, I told you that you could just go ahead and take one," Lorelai groaned._

_Kirk shook his head. "I want to win it. I refuse to accept a consolation prize."_

"_Fine. Luke, can you play against Kirk? Please? You can let him win," Lorelai whispered._

_Luke sighed. "I don't think that's such a good idea," he reasoned._

"_Kirk, I'll give you the prize if you can tell me my daughter's full name," Lorelai sighed._

"_Rory Gilmore," Kirk spat out, almost as though speed were a deciding factor in her awarding of prizes._

_Lorelai shook her head. "Lorelai Leigh Gilmore. She's named after me. One more question. Tell me three facts about Luke that I don't know, and then you'll get the prize."_

"_Uh… his last name is Danes?" Kirk asked._

_Lorelai made a buzzer noise. "Thanks for playing, Kirk." _

"_One more!" Kirk pleaded. "I am willing to beg." _

_She stood up once again. "One more. Fine. What is my favorite beverage?" _

"_Coffee," Kirk said, pumping his fist in the air. "I win." _

_Luke rolled his eyes. "That was a tough one," he said sarcastically._

_Kirk claimed his prize and walked away, clutching it in his hand. Lorelai shook her head. "I couldn't resist. I really wanted to see his reaction when he opened it… wait until he gets home and realizes that it's makeup. So what were you going to ask me?"_

_Luke cleared his throat. "Uh, well, I don't… I don't remember," he lied, scratching the back of his neck out of nervousness._

_Lorelai pouted. "Aw, that stinks. I really hate when that happens. I'm so sorry," she said sympathetically._

_He stood up and shoved his hands into his pockets. "It's all right, really. I'll ask again if I remember."_

"_You know where we eat every morning," Lorelai teased._

_Luke nodded. "That I do."_

Rory sighed. "Stupid Kirk ruins everything."

"Imagine if Kirk hadn't wanted his stupid prize, we'd have been together so much sooner," Lorelai mused.

Luke turned to face Lorelai. "Really? You would have said yes?"

Lorelai nodded. "My thought process would have been something along the lines of 'he cooks, he makes coffee, he's good looking, I'm single, so yes.' In case you ever wanted to know, pretty much any time I wasn't with someone else, I would have said yes to you. It's not like I haven't thought about you romantically a few times in my life."

Luke smiled. "Good to know."

Rory smiled. "This is a cute picture of you two, and it's rather recent. How come I've never seen it?" she asked.

Luke glanced at the picture of him and Lorelai. The two were standing in front of the gazebo, at their engagement party that the town had managed to keep a secret. She was standing to Luke's left, wrapping her arms around his waist and leaning in close to him. Luke had his left hand on her waist and his right hand on the siding of the gazebo steps. It wasn't a great picture of Luke, but that wasn't why he included the picture in the album in the first place. He loved that picture because Lorelai's smile was so genuine, and it told so much about how she was feeling.

Lorelai shrugged. "Sookie took it, at the engagement party. I don't know why you don't have a copy. Luke has it framed upstairs on his night table."

"I like the picture," Luke insisted.

"It's a really cute picture," Rory replied.

"I loved our party, and it sucked you couldn't have been there," Lorelai said, turning her attention to Rory.

Rory shrugged. "That's okay. The engagement party was miniscule compared to everything else."

Lorelai agreed. "I recall someone mentioning that to me at the party."

Luke took another look at the picture. "We mentioned a lot of things at that party."

_"Hey there, handsome," Lorelai said, grabbing Luke's belt loop and pulling him toward her. _

_"Welcome back," Luke replied, leaning in for a kiss. _

_Lorelai sighed. "Don't let me talk to Mrs. Kim again today, please. I'm feeling like I'm a leper on the side of the road when I talk to her. She's rubbed my sins of the past in enough already, she's been doing it since she met me. Just make sure I'm around you at all times so I can avoid her? I want to have a good engagement party, and she's sort of ruining it for me."_

_"I think that I can manage that," Luke said, putting his arm around her. _

_Lorelai grinned. "So you know that I was thinking?"_

_"What were you thinking?" Luke asked. "When you think about something, and bring it up in that fashion, it's usually big." _

_She looked at him, smiling. "You know that discussion we'd kind of been putting on the backburner for awhile now?" _

_"Ah, yes, I remember. It was that very important discussion that we've been avoiding having for a while now, about kids," Luke answered, sitting on the steps of the gazebo. _

_Lorelai nodded, sitting down next to Luke. "I was thinking that we can have two kids. You know, a little girl and a little boy. You'd be such a great dad to a little boy, and you can teach him to do… whatever manly things you want him to learn to do, and we can have a little girl, who can be your little princess, too." _

_"You've really thought that one through, haven't you?" Luke asked. _

_She smiled. "I really have. I want this, so much. I really do want this more than anything in the entire universe. And now, we're finally in a good place, and I just wanted to start making a plan, so I can look forward to putting that plan into action." _

_Luke grabbed a bottle of water from the table nearby. "Dirty, and yes, I think you have a good plan," he replied. _

_Lorelai gasped. "Really?"_

_"Sure. It sounds good to me, if that's what you want, of course," Luke said. "I'm for whatever you're for, within reason." _

_"That is the stupidest phrase in the entire English language. 'Within reason'. Whoever invented that phrase is no longer on my good side," she teased. _

_"That's what you want? Really?" _

_She nodded. "Yes. Really."_

_"Sounds like a plan," he said, giving her a kiss. _

"I remember the phone call I got detailing the decision reached," Rory said with a smile. "And you know, I'm really excited. I can be the cool big sister. I don't need kids of my own, I just need little siblings, right?"

Lorelai turned to Luke. "The word 'childbirth' freaks Rory out, let alone the concept and the process itself."

Rory shuddered. "Yeah, I'm good without that at this point in my life."

"Whatever makes you happy," Luke said.

Lorelai turned to Rory. "Translation? Good. That allows me to make sure that it is humanly impossible for you to grow up."

Rory giggled. "Uh, I think that's something both of you would say."

"He learns from the best. I bet your page is next, sweets, turn the page, and say 'hello me!'"

Rory rolled her eyes. "Why would I say that?"

"I don't know, what do you say when you see a picture of yourself?" Lorelai pondered.

"That's a picture of me?" Luke offered.

Rory nodded. "That or, 'oh, look, that's me at insert event or occasion here'."

"Well, you say what you want, because I'll put money on the fact that yours is next," Lorelai insisted.


	23. Rory Gilmore

**Rory Gilmore **

"There she is, the one and only Rory Gilmore!" Lorelai announced as Rory turned the page to reveal pictures of her.

Rory nodded. "Yup, that's me," she replied.

Lorelai raised her eyebrows. "Where did you get this picture?" she asked. "I do not have a copy, and that is bad."

Luke leaned in to look at the picture of him and Rory at Rory's graduation from Chilton. The two stood in front of a tree, and Luke had his arm around Rory. The look on his face was definitely one of pride.

"Mom. The two of us really don't share the pictures that we take, apparently. I have this picture in my room," Rory explained. "Grandma took it at my graduation."

Lorelai scrunched up her nose. "Your GRANDMOTHER took this? Really, now, where are the flying pigs?"

Rory nodded. "Honest, Mom, grandma took it. You and Sookie were talking about the inn, and she pulled me over in front of this ginormous tree, and she basically yanked Luke over there, too. She shanghaied us and took the picture. Actually, she took about eight, because Luke was squinting in one, my hair was in my face in another… but I'm glad she did that. I like the eighth picture."

"It's a good picture. Luke with short hair for some reason is just… so sexy," Lorelai purred, giving Luke a wink.

"Lorelai, jeez," Luke protested.

Lorelai giggled. "Wow, that's the second time I've embarrassed you today, Luke. It's a compliment. I think it's hot."

"Yeah, but seriously, do you need to announce that in front of Rory?" Luke asked.

Lorelai raised her eyebrows. "Maybe she'll convince you to cut it short."

"Maybe I think we should change the subject. So at Rory's graduation, you and Sookie were talking, Emily pulled us over for a picture, and then she and Richard went to get you two."

_Emily and Richard walked away, the picture taken, and searched for Lorelai and Sookie._

"_Well, that was really random," Rory said, breaking the silence._

_Luke nodded. "I'll say. She made me smile… my face hurts."_

"_Mine too. Maybe we're exercising the muscles in them?" Rory mused._

_He shrugged. "Maybe so. I don't remember anything from Anatomy. You're valedictorian, you tell me," he teased._

_She smiled. "Yeah, but Anatomy wasn't my best subject. I took it junior year."_

"_Ah," Luke replied._

_The two stood in silence for awhile, Rory periodically adjusting her tassel. "So you're going on a cruise with Nicole this summer?" Rory asked._

"_Yeah, yeah, we're going on a cruise."_

_Rory nodded, her tassel on her cap swinging back and forth as she did so. "I see."_

"_Something wrong?" Luke asked._

"_Uh, well, I just… never thought you'd be going on a cruise."_

"_Well, sorry to disappoint you," Luke teased._

_Rory shrugged. "You didn't really disappoint ME, maybe Mom, just not me."_

"_Your mom's disappointed?"_

"_Well… I'll say this. Don't get engaged, okay? She'd be… kind of bummed," Rory explained._

_Luke had no idea what Rory was talking about. Lorelai would be upset if Luke got engaged? Since when? This was all so confusing. Just as he wanted to ask more, Emily and Richard came toward the two._

Lorelai whipped her head around to look at Rory. "You spilled my beans? Ugh, remind me to thank you later."

Rory grinned. "You knew you loved him. I just had to tell him."

"But he didn't really listen, did he?" Lorelai teased.

Luke sighed. "Okay, look, I told you those stories already. I told you everything that happened on that cruise, and we're finished now."

"I see. Well, if she is, then I can marvel in the fact that you chose me in the long run. All those other women ended up getting pushed aside for little ol' me. Makes me feel really good," Lorelai explained.

"Seeing pictures of them didn't bother you?" Rory asked.

Lorelai shrugged. "You don't have any suggestive pictures, do you, Luke? That would bother me. But if they're perfectly innocent pictures, I've never considered myself a jealous woman."

"All right, all right," Rory consented.

"Anyway, I have another story about my step daughter if anyone would like to hear it," Luke interjected.

Lorelai raised her hand. "I do, I do!"

Rory smiled. "Which story might this be?"

"The mall story," Luke revealed.

Lorelai pulled back a little, getting a good look at her husband. "You took Rory to the mall? Seriously? When did this happen, and how did I not know?"

Luke nodded. "Rory was thirteen, and she was going to get something for your birthday at the mall, in addition to the countless other things she'd done for your birthday. Anyway, she missed the bus, and she came to me."

_"Caesar! I need those burgers, now!" Luke shouted in Caesar's general direction. _

_The bells above the diner door rang as Rory walked into the diner. She seated herself at the counter and folded her hands, waiting patiently for Luke to have a free moment. He passed her several times, until she finally said something to him. "Hey, Luke?"_

_Luke turned around, and adjusted his hat. "Rory, I'm so sorry I ignored you. What can I get you?" he asked. _

_"Well, I'm not hungry, but when business slows up for the day, can you do me a favor?" she asked, looking at a fingernail that seemed to be losing its polish. _

_"Sure, what do you need?" _

_"I need a ride to the mall. I missed the bus, and the next bus doesn't get back to Stars Hollow until late tonight. I told my Mom that I was staying at Lane's for dinner, and I know that's a bad lie, especially if Mrs. Kim finds out, but I really need to get her a birthday present and I need to do it tonight. Please, Luke?" she asked, letting out a heavy sigh. _

_Luke wiped his hands on a nearby dish rag. "Sure. Give me ten minutes?" he asked._

_Rory nodded. "Thank you so much. I'll even pay you for a tank of gas."_

_"That's really not necessary, Rory. I'll be back in a few minutes," Luke insisted. _

_Rory grabbed a muffin while she was waiting, leaving a dollar on the counter to pay for it. She watched as Luke went upstairs and grabbed his green coat. He came downstairs, going back into the kitchen briefly before coming out once again._

_"You ready?" he asked. _

_Rory nodded. "I'm ready. Really, Luke, that's so nice of you."_

_"Rory, it's really no problem. Honestly. If it was an inconvenience, I wouldn't have taken you," he said. _

_Rory got in the truck and buckled her seat belt, resisting the urge to turn on the radio. She turned to Luke and decided to pick his brain a little. "Can I ask you a question?"_

_"You just did," Luke teased, pulling out onto the main road. _

_"Come on, Luke, can I ask you a few questions? I'm a future journalist, you can be my first hard hitting interview," she reasoned. _

_Luke cleared his throat nervously, knowing that he wouldn't be able to say 'no' to Rory Gilmore. _

_"All right, go easy on me, okay? It's my first hard hitting interview as well."_

_Rory giggled. "I can do that. I won't pry, and if you're uncomfortable with any of the questions, feel free to use your right to remain silent. Okay, so you grew up in Stars Hollow?"_

_"I did. I lived on Oak Street as a kid. You know that big white house with the tire swing that no one lives in?" Luke asked. _

_"Mom and I loved that house. She wanted to buy it, actually, when we moved here, but we heard it wasn't on the market, and we were really bummed. But then, of course, Mom found the Crap Shack," Rory recalled. _

_Luke sighed. "She liked that house?"_

_"Yup. I think the tire swing sold her. But go on," she urged. _

_"Well, that was where I grew up. I still own the house, my dad left it to me when he passed away," Luke explained. "I figured maybe someday, when I find the right person, I'll… move in there. I mean, if she wants to, and all." _

_Rory nodded. "I see. Does it upset you to talk about your dad?"_

_"I usually don't mention him, but I don't mind you asking," Luke answered. _

_"I won't if it upsets you." _

_Luke put on his turn signal. "Go ahead," he said, checking both ways to see if it was safe to turn._

_"How old were you when he passed away?" _

_Luke pulled out into the intersection. "Twenty one. He'd been sick since I was sixteen or seventeen, though. He had a heart attack at a really young age, and he wasn't the same after that." _

_"Oh, I'm sorry," Rory said. _

_"Thanks." _

_"Did your dad wear flannel, too?" she teased. _

_Luke shook his head. "Nope. Flannel was my thing. I wasn't always a flannel type of guy. I started wearing it in the winter, when it was really cold in the diner. I liked wearing it, it was comfortable and easy to wash."_

_"I see." _

_"Then I kind of just… kept wearing it," Luke continued. _

_"I see. I'm also curious about one other wardrobe choice. What about the fact that you always wear a backwards baseball hat? I'm assuming that it's some health code thing? For the diner?" _

_Luke shrugged. "I don't know, I just like not having to worry about what my hair looks like."_

_"Understandable, I wish I could just ignore my hair." _

_"You're digging deep, here, Woodward, aren't you?" Luke asked. _

_"I'm actually Bernstein, and not as deep as I could, I suppose. You are doing me a favor as it is. I'm just… curious." _

_Luke nodded. "That's fine. We've got a long trip ahead of us, with all this traffic. Ask as much as you want."_

_Rory smiled. "Do you have a girlfriend? Mom thinks that you've had a few, but she just doesn't know it."_

_"Not at the moment. I'm waiting for the right person," Luke insisted. _

_"Of course you are, that makes perfect sense. I think that's it for now… I'll ask later if I have more questions," Rory said, getting out of the truck when Luke parked. _

_Luke locked the truck and began to cross the street. "You know what you're looking for?" he asked._

_Rory nodded. "That purse," she said, pointing to the window display._

_"You have enough money for that?" Luke asked, wide eyed. _

_"I save all year for this. She's my best friend," Rory said. _

Lorelai turned to Luke. "You still have your old house? How come you didn't bring that up in the topic of house hunting last year?"

He shrugged. "This house means so much to you. I wouldn't want you to give it up for mine."

"Yeah, well, I liked your house anyway, as Rory mentioned. Just… don't get rid of it, okay? We may run out of room here, and need that house. If we decide against renovating this one again," Lorelai reasoned.

"I promise, I won't sell it," Luke said.

Lorelai smiled. "I really did love that house."

"We'll discuss it," he said, taking her hand.

Rory pointed to the album. "So who's next?" she asked.


	24. April Nardini

**April Nardini **

"And this is obviously April's page in the album."

Lorelai grinned. She leaned her head on his shoulder to get a better look at the pictures of her step daughter in the album. "That is an adorable picture of April. I like her glasses in that one."

Luke nodded. "Yeah, I think she did, too. Until I accidentally stepped on them."

"Aw, Luke! Watch where you're walking!" Lorelai said, in a 'duh' tone.

Luke rolled his eyes. "She should have had them on the dresser, in the case, where they belonged."

"I have a feeling that you've had this discussion with her a few times, by the tone in your voice," Rory chimed in.

Luke let out a heavy sigh. "A few? Yes. Definitely. She's a little disorganized sometimes. But now that her favorite glasses were broken, she remembers to put them where they belong. She was just a little scatterbrained before, that's all. She's more organized now."

Rory nodded, leaning in to see the pictures of April. "Aw, that's a cute one of you and April, Luke!" Rory said.

"Post it!" Lorelai said, pointing to the kitchen.

"You think I want to go all the way into the kitchen to grab a post it?" Rory said, crossing her arms. "Go and get them yourself!"

Lorelai sighed. "How many times do I have to tell you that being pregnant gives you a license to have people get things for you? You can be lazy with an excuse to be lazy!"

"Ah, what a dream," Rory said sarcastically.

Luke cleared his throat and waited for Lorelai and Rory to look at him. "You do realize that this is the last page, and your attention spans don't need to be here for much longer?"

Rory pouted. "I'm kinda sad that it's the last one!"

"Me too," Lorelai agreed. "I feel like I'm just getting to know the people of Stars Hollow, and Luke, and everyone else in this book better… and I love it. This one will get a page, right?" Lorelai asked, putting a hand on her stomach.

Luke nodded. "Of course."

"I'm so excited for this last page," Rory said. "I know I said I was sad before… bittersweet."

"Okay, so this is April's page. That picture you pointed to earlier was in New Mexico. It was at April's school."

Rory nodded. "She's just graduating middle school, now, right?"

"Yup. She is. She hated her old school, so she's really excited to move on. Have I mentioned that she wants to look at Yale, Rory?" Luke asked.

"No, you haven't, but she's only going to be a freshman… but regardless, it's good to have an idea. I have connections," Rory said, crossing her legs. "Plus, Grandpa works there, now, too. Ah, networking."

Lorelai snorted. "Or being blessed with good genetics."

"Yeah, I'll give some credit to you, I guess," Rory teased, rolling her eyes.

Luke watched the two banter back and forth for a few minutes, recalling some times that April was right in the middle of it all. They had both so readily accepted April into their lives, and he loved it when April was there with the two of them. He finally decided that it was time to get the last explanation over with. "Okay, so this is me and April at April's school."

Lorelai and Rory both got quiet at the same time and turned to Luke, giving him their full attention.

"This was at April's middle school. It was a parent student breakfast, and Anna couldn't make it over, so April invited me."

"I remember that!" Lorelai said. "That's when you went to New Mexico for a few days."

Luke nodded. "That's when I went to New Mexico. And that's when I told April that we were engaged. Again."

"We never discussed the Anna situation," Lorelai said, putting her feet on the coffee table. "Now would be an opportune time to do so."

"Anna and I were dating for about a month. We were only together once, and then things went downhill from that point on," Luke explained.

Rory nodded. "Was it mutual?"

Luke shrugged. "Anna was being really possessive of me, and she didn't really understand that I had other commitments besides going out with her, so we broke it off."

"Oh, that must have been really hard. Sorry," Rory said.

"We're okay now, I mean, I have April out of the whole thing, so it's okay. So that picture was taken at April's school. I was telling her about us," Luke explained.

"What a lovely story anecdote. Luke goes to New Mexico, visiting April. Would you like to hear more, Rory?" Lorelai asked.

Rory smiled. "I think that would be simply lovely. It sounds just delightful. Please, tell us more!"

"We were at the breakfast," Luke continued. "And April was being really chatty."

_April looked down at the biscuits, pancakes, and eggs in the breakfast line in disgust. She looked up at Luke apologetically. "None of this is going to be as good as your stuff. I'm a little disappointed it's all processed and gross. I'm really sorry, Dad. You don't have to eat it if you don't want to." _

_Luke shook his head. "Really, April, it's no big deal. I'm sure Lorelai's had me eat much worse before. And if you're still hungry, we can head over to the hotel after your breakfast and I'll get in the kitchen and make you something, if you want," he teased. _

_April laughed. "That would be funny, but I'm sure the chef there isn't a lot like Sookie, and wouldn't approve of the Cajun eggs benedict idea." _

_"You're probably right. I'll take you out for a nice lunch later if you're still hungry, how's that? What time does your Mom want you home by?" Luke asked. _

_"Five thirty. She's cooking dinner, I'm sure she'd love to have you," April said, choosing a seat at a small picnic table in the shade. _

_"That's really nice, April, but I'm going to have to pass on that. I have plans," Luke lied. _

_April shook her head. "You know, you have to start being a better liar, because I'm starting to catch on," she teased. "You don't have a very good poker face." _

_"Sorry… but I do have plans. Lorelai would probably not appreciate me missing her phone call at five. And you know about her and punctuality," he mused. "By the time she gets around to calling, it's five thirty." _

_"Yeah, I do. I'm so glad you could come, Dad, even though Lorelai couldn't make it. There were so many things I wanted to show you, but I ended up passing in the list on the back of some homework assignment," April said. "And I'm upset because I don't remember a thing on the list!" _

_Luke smiled. "It's okay, we don't always need an itinerary for the trip. You can just show me around school if you want."_

"_You got that attitude from Lorelai, didn't you? Not like you really like set plans anyway, but I figured you got that a little from Lorelai... the 'go with the flow, see what happens next' attitude?"_

_He shrugged. "A little bit. She doesn't influence me THAT much," he insisted._

_April giggled. _"_I see._ _Speaking of Lorelai, how is Rory? Does she like her job?"_

"_She's doing a really great job covering the campaign. She makes me feel like I know what I'm talking about when I have to discuss politics at one of Emily and Richard's stupid functions," Luke mused._

_April grinned. "That's good. You always need a background in that kind of stuff, you know, just in case you get on Jeopardy or something. It's good to know a lot about a little, but it's better to know a little about a lot."_

"_That's an interesting theory," Luke said, taking a bite of his eggs._

"_I had a dream one time that I was on Jeopardy and I knew all the answers. But, my buzzer thing wouldn't work, or I was too slow or something. Alex Trebek didn't call on me once. I was out in the first round, with no cash to show for it. So now I've tried to fix the reflex part of it, I like to play air hockey at the arcade down the street," April explained, gesturing with her plastic fork as she explained her dream. _

"_Air hockey? Sounds… dangerous," Luke said, shuddering._

_April shook her head. "Only to your knuckles. That's about it. It's that table with the random disc… at the arcade last night? Remember?"_

"_I remember, the game I lost by a number I didn't think was possible to lose by," Luke recalled._

_"Chalk it up to simple inexperience. You're a rookie, to use the sports metaphor. Speaking of sports, I figured you'd like to know that I've been keeping tabs on the Red Sox while I'm here. I don't really understand baseball, but I know you do, so I thought I'd try to appreciate it. It's an aesthetically pleasing sport. Everyone pretty much stays in their spots. It's a good introductory sport for a science nerd like me. I had to do a project on the velocity and speed of baseballs, depending on the weather, who they're hit by, how hard they're thrown, all of that," April rambled. _

_"Wow," Luke replied, not knowing what else to say. _

_"Yeah, so I've been doing that in between practicing my air hockey skills to make my reflexes stellar. My dream dictionary said that my dream about the buzzer was because I felt inadequate about something and to change it," April continued._

_Luke looked at April. "Dream dictionary? What's a dream dictionary? Those actually exist?" _

_April nodded. "Yeah, you look up a word, say, tree, and it tells you what you're really thinking if you had a tree in your dream."_

"_A good gift idea for Lorelai and Rory," Luke mused._

"_They're into dreams and interpretation and meanings, too?" April asked._

_Luke chuckled. "Well, Lorelai has these really over the top, crazy dreams that she has Rory help her analyze. Instead of calling Rory at four in the morning, she could probably use one of those."_

"_I bet she could," April agreed. "I, for one, have found mine to be really useful."_

_Luke sighed, figuring that it was time to tell April about Lorelai. "Well, uh, April, there's uh… something that I'd like to talk to you about."_

"_Dad, I got that talk awhile ago…"April said, giggling and looking at the ground._

_Luke turned red when April started to talk. "No, not that talk, jeez."_

_April giggled. "Just like getting a rise out of you. What's up? No more Lorelai inspired jokes, I promise. Girl scout's honor." _

_"You're a Girl Scout?" Luke asked. _

_"In first grade I was… but I was a 'brownie' then. You're not technically a 'girl scout' for awhile, but whatever. The hierarchy isn't important, the promise was the important part," April replied._

"_Well, uh, I just wanted to let you know that… Lorelai and I are… getting married," he said, nervously gesturing with his hands._

_April smiled. "That's great! Lorelai and Rory are fabulous. Congratulations! I'm really excited for you. And to be completely honest, I'm excited for me, too. I love them, they're great."_

"_Well, I'll tell them you said that," Luke replied. "And thanks." _

"_When's the wedding? I want to come," April insisted. "See, you have to talk to Mom about it at dinner tonight! Does Lorelai have bridesmaids? I'm sure Rory's the maid of honor. Or maybe Sookie is the Matron of Honor? Is Paul Anka going to be the ring bearer? Oh, maybe Davey would be the ring bearer! Oh, that would be so cute!" _

_Luke shook his head, chuckling at April's enthusiasm toward his impending wedding. "Don't give Lorelai any ideas," he teased. _

Lorelai pointed to Luke. "You forget that I'm the cool stepmom. I get to influence April if I so choose. And if she so chooses. And we have both chosen, so you, my friend, are out of luck."

"Yeah, I guess you did hear from April, because Paul Anka was in our wedding," Luke muttered.

Rory giggled. "That made one of the cutest pictures, you and Paul Anka. The only one that rivals it is the one of Luke and Paul Anka."

"It was a great picture. In fact, they were both good pictures. Hey, I have a question, is Paul Anka in this album?" Lorelai asked.

Luke sighed. "He's a dog, Lorelai. I don't take pictures of him as though he is a member of my family."

"Don't let him hear you say that, he'll bite you. He actually really likes you, Luke," Lorelai replied.

"Lorelai, I like Paul Anka…"

"And we saw a picture of him and Jackson, Mom, remember?" Rory added, trying to spare Luke from any more pain in the conversation.

Lorelai grinned. "He weaseled his way into your album. I'm really excited. Although he deserves an entire page…"

Rory looked over at the album. "That's a really cute picture of you and April, Mom," she pointed out, trying to distract Lorelai again.

"I like that one, too," Lorelai said. "I get to tell my story this time."

"Well, then, you tell your story," Luke insisted.

Lorelai smiled. "See, before I taught her, April was not a shopper by any stretch of the imagination. She was very much a girl who looked only for what she needed. She was like that until this trip, where I taught her everything she needed to know about shopping."

_Lorelai turned off the Jeep after she'd parked in the mall's parking structure. She took her keys and placed them in her purse, and turned to her step daughter, smiling. _"_Okay, April. I know you're a girl, and I know you've got it in you... it's an instinct. But your ability to shop is... hiding. And we're going to find it so we can properly fix it."_

_April smiled. "I agree, I really do need some help. Okay, a lot of help. I've never been a shopper, but I'm going to learn the art. But this trip is going to be fabulous." _

"_We'll catch you up quickly, don't worry. The Food Court's the easiest part, you already know how to eat!" Lorelai teased, pulling out of the driveway of the Crap Shack. _

_"This is true. First big milestone moment in the mall is easing me into the culture of shopping. I see how it goes," April replied, getting out of the Jeep. _

_"You got it, kid. You're a smart cookie, you can be chocolate chip, or a sugar cookie, or maybe even an oatmeal raisin cookie, if you want. Or you can be any kind of smart cookie that you want to be. Feel free to think about it for awhile, just let me know what kind you want to be. So, speaking of smart people, how's school going?" Lorelai asked, shutting the door to the Jeep._

_April rolled her eyes. "The academics and classes and stuff are easy to manage, but the drama sure isn't. Apparently I looked at Karen the wrong way the other day, and she's getting all two faced on me. She's mad." _

"_God, Karen," Lorelai started before she caught herself. "Sorry, that was a Dane Cook quote, Rory gave me the CD for my half birthday and it got stuck in the CD player before Gypsy fixed it."_

_April giggled. "He's funny. I know some of his stuff. And you and Rory get each other gifts for your half birthdays?" _

_Lorelai nodded. "Half birthdays are pretty much a day to shop, and an excuse to have the other buy something for you. Is it your half birthday today?" _

_"No," April said, shaking her head. _

_"Well, today's your… 'I became a smart cookie today' day, so you get to let me buy you something," Lorelai insisted. _

_"Lorelai, I'm fine, really, thanks, though," April replied._

"_You got that from your dad._ _Anyway, if this Karen girl makes you angry again, you think, in your head, 'honey, if you're going to be two faced, at least make one of them pretty'," Lorelai suggested. _

_April's eyes widened. "That's intense! Where do you come up with this stuff? It's a whole new culture, almost like 'Mean Girls'."_

"_You're not saying it to anyone, you're just thinking it. And besides, it makes you feel better," Lorelai explained. "And as for where I got my material? A few years of fancy Hartford private school corrupts most… Rory got out of that one."_

"_I bet it does," April mused._

_Lorelai smiled. "Just don't tell your Dad that I taught you that one, or we'd have a Ross and Rachel and Ben practical joking wrath situation on our hands."_

"_Huh?" April asked._

"_You're just after the FRIENDS craze, aren't you? That's okay. Never mind. We'll rent the DVD's for you and then you'll understand. Anyway, now we need to pick a store, that's not the Discovery store. You're getting a dress to the formal. Just don't tell your Dad it's on his credit card," Lorelai said with a wink._

_April smiled. "Thank you, Lorelai… I like purple, there's one!"_

_Lorelai shook her head. "I'm thinking a pink color would go very well with your complexion."_

_April's eyes widened. "Well, pink it is, then. I trust you. You're the expert," she said, following Lorelai into the store. _

"And that is the picture of her in that pretty pink dress we ended up buying with Luke's credit card," Lorelai explained.

Rory smiled. "You didn't make her one?"

Lorelai shook her head. "Too close to the actual dance to pull that one off. I am really good, but unfortunately, I am not quite that good."

"I see. And plus, you wouldn't have her measurements beforehand, right?" Rory confirmed.

"I do have her measurements written down now, in case such an emergency arises again. She's a great kid, Luke, and I'm glad she's coming up next week," Lorelai said, turning her attention to Luke.

Luke nodded. "I am, too." He shut the photo album and placed it on the table. "Well, that was it."

Lorelai gave him a suspicious look. "That's it? There was someone missing. You skipped a page, that can't be it," she insisted, grabbing the album.

"Yeah, there was definitely someone missing," Rory insisted.


	25. Luke Danes

**Luke Danes**

Lorelai opened the album and the third page, between the page of his mother's photos and the page with Liz' photos, was filled with pictures of Luke. She turned to him, pointed to the page, and handed him the album. "You are so busted. You skipped your page. On purpose, no less. Oh, are you going to get it now, buddy."

Rory giggled. "Look at your hair! Luke, this is too funny. I'm resisting the urge to laugh until my sides hurt…"

"See, I knew this was coming, and that's why I decided to conveniently avoid any stories regarding this page," Luke insisted.

Lorelai pointed to a picture of Luke in a hockey uniform that must have been taken when Luke was still in grade school. "You just played every sport, didn't you? You did baseball and hockey, but how about some of the lesser known sports that get no love at all? Curling? How about chess?"

"I didn't play curling. Or chess, which was then considered a sport at Stars Hollow elementary school," Luke offered. "And I don't see what the big deal is about you looking at my page. You know what I look like!"

Rory sighed. "It's the principle of it, Luke. You spilled the beans on everyone else, time to give us your story."

"You know all about me," Luke protested.

Lorelai sighed. "Just tell us already. Tell us about this picture of you… and Bootsy. Tell us the deal with that beef you two have going dating back to when you were in diapers."

"Do I really have to tell this story again?"

"Yes," Rory replied. "You're a good storyteller, and plus, I've only heard Bootsy's side of things. Please?"

Luke consented. "Fine. I'll tell you the story. We were in first grade, and Bootsy swears that he was innocent, but he made the mistake of ruining my clay handprint."

"Ooh, this sounds like it got intense," Lorelai mused.

"He really did ruin my handprint," Luke insisted. "No matter how much he denies it, you will both know it's true."

_As Luke stood in line to make his Mother's Day clay hand print, Bootsy tapped Luke on the shoulder. Luke turned around to find Bootsy acting completely normal. "Why did you just tap me?" Luke asked._

"_I didn't, now shut up and make your stupid hand print!" Bootsy replied._

"_No, you shut up!" Luke replied._

_Bootsy laughed. "Yeah, that's going to make me really scared. You're such a baby."_

"_Stupid head," Luke replied. "I can beat you up, you know."_

"_No you can't! I'll beat you up first!" Bootsy shot back, crossing his arms._

"_We can't beat each other up in here! We're just going to have to sit on the bench in the hallway until we stop. We have to beat each other up after school," Luke replied, trying to think rationally._

_Bootsy shook his head. "Nah. You're not worth my time."_

_Luke sat at the table to paint his clay hand print, and as the teacher turned to get more paint, Bootsy reached across and drew a black stripe across Luke's hand print. Luke was stunned. "Bootsy!" he shouted._

"_Boys, boys, what's wrong here?" Luke's teacher asked._

"_Mrs. Michaels, Luke's mad because he messed up his hand print and I didn't. He's pretending I did it," Bootsy replied._

"_I am tired of you two fighting. Luke, sit over here, please," Mrs. Michaels replied._

_Luke grumbled as he picked up his now black hand print and sat next to the teacher._

Lorelai pouted. "Poor Luke! You were the kid that got picked on until you fought back, and when you finally fought back, you got in trouble. That must have been a terrible, terrible experience! Are you still haunted by this?"

"It wasn't that big of a deal, but basically, Bootsy and I haven't gotten along since then. I hold nothing against him, but I get annoyed when he says he didn't do anything, because, let's face it, we all did something stupid as kids… but we admit to it as adults. He's in denial," Luke continued, his speech slowly becoming a rant.

"I see how it is now," Lorelai replied. "So you were an athletic kid. You liked Star Trek and Star Wars. And other than that, I don't know much about you as a kid."

Luke sighed. "There's really not much else to know."

"I think there are lots of things you could tell us, Luke," Rory insisted. She gave him a small smile as he turned to face her. "Sorry, I had to side with Mom this time, I haven't been sticking up for her since I got here. Fair is fair."

"That's okay, Rory, he understands," Lorelai teased. She pointed to a picture of Luke when he was four or five. "That's a cute picture of you. Look at you and your missing tooth."

"Yeah, Liz actually knocked two of my baby teeth out before they should have been knocked out," Luke recalled. "I was sitting on the front porch and Liz was playing soccer with my dad. I decided I wanted to play, and by some freak accident I ended up getting kicked in the face. I don't even remember how I got kicked. I just did."

Rory smiled. "I can picture that happening. And freak accidents are the best because they make the best stories."

"And you had a dog? How come I never knew this?" Lorelai gasped.

Luke leaned over, looking at the picture Lorelai pointed out. He was sitting in the grass in front of his house, petting a beagle who sat to his right, panting. "That was my dog. Well, it was the family dog, but he actually liked me. His name was Sampson and he was a good dog. I liked him a lot. And one day, I was walking home from school, I was about nine or ten. It was right after my mom passed away. Liz was staying over Crazy Carrie's house that night, so she walked home earlier. Anyway, I was walking home from school, and Sampson had gotten out. He ran into the street when he saw me, and then a truck ran over him."

Lorelai's eyes widened. "Oh, Luke, that's terrible! Your mom had just passed away, then you witnessed your dog get run over?"

He nodded. "And I was really beat up about it, too. And I promised myself I'd never get another dog, so nothing bad would happen to it. I was too afraid, I guess. But as I got older, and opened the diner, a dog was out of the question anyway."

Lorelai grinned. "Until Paul Anka," she said, motioning to the sleeping dog who sat at the edge of the staircase.

"Until Paul Anka," Luke said with a sigh.

Rory smiled. "Okay, now we need another Luke story. You've got dozens, I can tell. I want to hear a really good story."

"Like what?" Luke asked.

Rory thought for a moment. "This is harder than I thought. How about… the story of… when you… uh… Mom, do you have a story you want to hear more about?"

Lorelai grinned. "Why, yes, I just might. I'm thinking that we should hear the story of when Luke met our little Rory?"

"That's not a childhood Luke story," Rory replied.

"Still, I want to hear him tell it," Lorelai insisted. "Come on, Luke."

"Okay," Luke consented. "It wasn't long after I met you, Lorelai, it was probably two or three days after that. You two came into the diner."

_As Luke took Kirk's order, he heard the bells ring on the door again. He turned to look at who it was. There was Lorelai, and the girl that had to be her daughter. Luke knew they'd be coming back, but he didn't know when. Lorelai found a table and seated herself there while Luke took Kirk's order. When Luke was finished, he walked over to Lorelai._

"_Welcome back," he said with a smile. "What can I get for you two?"_

_Rory looked at Lorelai. "You've been in here before, you know what's good. You can order for me."_

_Lorelai grinned. "Two cheeseburgers, extra cheese, and an order of chili fries, extra chili. I'll have a coffee, Rory will have a root beer. This is my daughter Rory, by the way."_

_Luke smiled. "Mia told me about you. Nice to meet you."_

"_It's nice to meet you too. Are you Luke, or are you Duke? Mom says you're Duke, but the sign says 'Luke's'. Which is it?" Rory questioned._

_Luke sighed. "Luke," he replied._

"_Okay, got it, thanks. Told you, Mom," Rory said._

_Lorelai shook her head. "He's lying to you, Rory. He told me his name was Duke!"_

_Luke walked away, allowing the girls time to debate before he brought them their order._

Rory laughed. "You were so insistent that his name was Duke," she teased.

"With a coffee withdrawal, everything's blurry and everyone's words sound slurred. How was I supposed to know?" Lorelai said, trying to defend herself.

"But he corrected you about six million times and you still called him Duke, that's where the problem lies," Rory insisted.

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "No, he corrected me once. When he corrected me, I apologized profusely and called him 'Luke'."

Rory shook her head. "I think you made that one up. Or you must have had a dream about it, because it definitely didn't happen in real life."

Luke agreed. "I agree with you, it's true. You called me 'Duke' to annoy me."

"Well, my evil master plan must have worked, then!" Lorelai said.


	26. Citizens of Stars Hollow

**All the Citizens of Stars Hollow**

Luke shut the photo album and put it on the coffee table. "And that's the end of the album. For real this time. That's my family, your family, our family."

Rory pouted. "It's so sad."

"Thank you for sharing that with us, Luke," Lorelai said, leaning in to give her husband a kiss.

Luke nodded. "You're welcome."

Lorelai put her feet up on the coffee table and sighed. "Ah, I love to do absolutely nothing. Rory, do nothing with us today! It's do nothing day!"

"She's been talking about 'do nothing' day for weeks now. Apparently we don't leave the house, we just sit around and enjoy each other's company," Luke explained.

Rory nodded. "I see. I'll do nothing with you for a little while, but then I have some business to take care of."

Lorelai pouted. "You can't do business on 'do nothing day'! That's like not eating turkey on Thanksgiving for anyone but the Kims, or not wearing green on St. Patrick's Day! It's just wrong!"

"Hey, some people don't celebrate Thanksgiving, and some people fake being Irish on Saint Patrick's Day. Believe me, you'll thank me for doing something on do-nothing day!" Rory said, winking at Luke as she got up from the couch.

Lorelai's jaw dropped and she sat up, her arms crossed. "Secrets, secrets, are no fun…"

Luke rolled his eyes. "Unless you are a part of one, we know, Lorelai, we've been through this about six times today."

Lorelai pouted. "But I just want to know what she's doing! Is it so hard to share a secret with the woman who gave you life? I think not. You know I'm kind of sad that the album's that… bare? We need to put more people in that album!"

"You want to watch a movie?" Luke asked, obviously trying to distract Lorelai from the 'secret' Rory was keeping, and from any thoughts of expanding the album at that very moment.

Lorelai smiled. "How's 'Casablanca' for you?" she asked, grinning. "If you're trying to distract me, you might as well distract me with a really fantastic movie."

Luke got up from the couch and walked over to the TV. He looked for the movie, put it in the DVD player, and Lorelai was hooked on the movie as if it were her first viewing. He watched Rory talk on her cell phone in the kitchen, and he knew what the 'secret' was, but he was instructed not to tell. And he knew Rory's wrath very well, and he was aware of the consequences of ruining the surprise.

He got up from the couch and walked into the kitchen. "Does anyone need anything? Or is everything all set?"

Rory smiled. "They'll be ready at five, just like I planned. No major injuries, no supply shortages, it's all good for now. Kirk broke his toe from someone putting the ladder on it, but he's a big baby anyway."

Luke nodded. "Okay, well, let me know if I need to go and straighten anyone out over there," he insisted. "Would you mind going to pick April up from the airport when her flight gets in today? I'm only asking because I know Lorelai would not only get mad, but she'd get suspicious if I left the house."

Rory nodded. "Of course I don't mind, Luke! I'm picking her up at three thirty, and then we're having a late lunch and heading over. You're definitely right, though, Mom would get really suspicious if April showed up at the house before the big extravaganza."

"She's already suspicious, you know your mother," Luke insisted.

"Mom? Suspicious? Not quite yet. She just thinks someone from work is calling me, or a guy is asking me out for about the hundredth time. She'll get suspicious if someone calls you on the home phone and asks you where the balloons are," Rory explained.

"Well, she found out about her Mother's Day present last year," Luke recalled.

Rory rolled her eyes. "That's because you should know by now that you tell Miss Patty and Babette nothing, unless you want it to be spread like a virus around town," she teased. "But don't worry, she has no clue. Trust me."

"If you say so, I trust you. You sure you didn't want to go into event management? PR?" Luke teased.

"I'm sure. I like this as a side job in case journalism goes belly up, which it isn't, it's simply changing from jounralism as we know it to a different form of the same thing. Tell that to all the DAR people you know, see what they say," Rory added.

Luke sighed. "If I knew where to go from there, I would. You've given me enough literary works to reference in conversation, so I think I'm okay for now."

Rory smiled. "Well, you could always do the 'start the conversation and run' thing," she suggested.

"I've tried that, but then they end up tracking me down to get my opinion on the subject," Luke replied.

Rory nodded. She leaned up against the counter, turning on her cell phone. She smiled at Luke. "Thanks for being such a good guy. Mom needs someone like you to keep her sane. Thanks for everything you've done for us."

Luke sighed. "You've thanked me a hundred million times for all of that. It's really no problem."

"As long as you know that we're grateful," Rory said. "I have six voicemails from a half an hour of having my phone off. Uh oh."

Luke rolled his eyes, and grabbed at his hat. "Ah, jeez, people are incompetent, apparently."

Rory put the phone to her ear and listened to the messages. "This one's from Kirk," she said.

Luke quickly glanced in the living room to make sure Lorelai wasn't listening. She was engrossed in the movie, so Luke looked back at Rory. "What did he want?"

"The first three messages were making sure that my phone was off, and that it was really me he was calling. The next three were really dumb questions that he had answered by people as he called. No big deal," Rory replied.

Luke nodded. "Good. If you want to head out and get April, I can convince your mother to do something on her do nothing day."

"Dirty?" Rory asked.

Luke rolled his eyes. "How about getting her to the party?"

Rory smiled. "That sounds like a good idea to me. Do you remember how to get text messages on your phone?"

Luke nodded. "April showed me last time she came up."

"Well, I'll send you a text message when I meet up with April, so you won't have to worry about us, okay?" Rory reasoned.

"See you in a little while," Luke said. He walked into the living room and sat next to Lorelai. She paused the movie and turned to Luke.

"Okay, so do nothing day has turned out to be awfully boring," Lorelai mused.

Luke kissed her. "I'm sorry. How about I take you out somewhere?"

Lorelai's eyes lit up. "Ooh! Where?" she asked, suddenly interested.

"Wow, that 'Do Nothing' day went right out the window," Luke teased. "Go get dressed."

"The only reason why I hate it when you do this is because I never know how dressy to get," Lorelai pouted.

"Casual, comfortable," Luke replied. "We're not going anywhere with candle lit dinner."

Lorelai grinned. "Good. I'll be back."

Luke sat back on the couch, picking up the album once again. He looked at the last few blank pages in it, knowing that they would soon be full. As he waited for what seemed like an eternity for Lorelai to come downstairs, he looked at the picture of Lorelai, Rory, and April on the stools at the diner. He made a mental note to frame the picture as Lorelai came back downstairs.

"And?" she asked, turning slowly for Luke to approve of her outfit choice.

"You look beautiful," he said.

Lorelai kissed him on the cheek. "You know how to win me over, that's for sure," she said. "Let's go."

As Luke turned to walk out the door, he realized where Lorelai was headed. Luke followed her and had to lead Lorelai away from the truck. "We're walking," he replied. "It's in town."

Lorelai nodded. "If we can walk really slowly, I'm all for it."

Luke and Lorelai walked for a little while, until they came across Miss Patty's. Lorelai looked at the locked door suspiciously. "Something's going on in there," she said, pointing to the studio. "She only locks the door when she's planning something. I'm going to find out what she's doing."

Luke didn't find it necessary to stop her. She'd fallen for Luke's plan, not Kirk's plan that was originally brought up as the solution to the dilemma of how to get Lorelai to her own surprise party, the perfect baby shower. She opened the door, and as everyone greeted her, she turned to face Luke.

He simply shrugged, motioning toward everyone who had shown up for the party. "I didn't do it, they did," he insisted. "They're your family, remember?"

Lorelai saw April first, gave her a hug, and moved on to the rest of the townspeople. April ran over to Luke, giving him a hug. "She's happy, huh? Who planned this out for her?"

Luke nodded. "She's really happy. And the entire town planned it, they just came to me with questions and logistics and stuff."

Lorelai found Luke and April chatting and she grabbed Luke's hand. "They may be my family, but you're the one that put all these people in the album," she insisted.

April looked interested. "Album?"

"I'll explain later," Luke said, following Lorelai where she wanted him to go.


	27. Kylie Lorelai Danes

**Kylie Lorelai Danes**

Luke was not really tired, even though it was such an eventful day. The newest addition to the family had finally arrived. He smiled as he watched Lorelai chatter endlessly to their daughter.

"And you know, when Rory was born, the most popular name in the country was Jennifer? Yes, it was Jennifer. I'm not really liking the name Jennifer very much for you, sweets. Daddy doesn't either, judging by the look on his face," Lorelai said, winking at Luke.

Luke shook his head. "I don't think so."

Lorelai sighed. "This shouldn't be so hard. We're both so… split on this! I just say we mishmash the names together, and have yours be her middle name."

Luke crossed his arms. "I thought we decided on this four months ago. If she was a girl, her name was going to be Madelyn, per your request. If it was a boy, we agreed on Will. I don't understand why this has to be so difficult."

"Well, I looked at her, and I didn't think she looked like a Madelyn. Rory had a friend named Madelyn, and she pointed that out to me, and I just couldn't get it out of my head. And you've gotta consider the personality here. She's not a Madelyn to me. And I know what you're going to say, you can't just choose a name like she's a dog, changing it a million times before deciding. Or looking at her personality and taking a million years to decide. I know that. But she's not a Madelyn." Lorelai pressed a kiss to the baby's hand.

Luke looked at Lorelai and kissed her on the cheek. "Well, at least we didn't give her a name you'd hate for the rest of forever," he reasoned.

"I'm loving this Mommy-Daddy dynamic we've got going on," Lorelai said, looking down at her new baby girl. "It's pretty awesome, the negotiating, the talking out... it's the first big decision of many that we will make as parents."

"If you say so, then I guess it is," Luke replied.

Lorelai sighed. "What are we going to call you? I'm thinking we're not going to name you after a fruit. Because usually, kids get made fun of that way. And another Lorelai would just be much too confusing."

"Didn't we have second favorite names?" Luke asked. "I seem to remember having a sheet full of names we agreed that we both liked."

"In my purse," Lorelai said, tilting her head toward her bag that sat on the floor in the corner of the room.

Luke rolled his eyes, walking across the room to look for the list. "You anticipated this happening?"

Lorelai smiled. "Well, just in case! I like the name, Luke, but it just doesn't fit her. You know? Like "Adam" wouldn't fit you! And ha! You're holding a purse. Your daddy's holding a purse," Lorelai said, looking down at her daughter once again.

"My name's not Adam, and I'm getting the list from your purse." Luke replied.

Lorelai took her little girl's hand. "I know, that's why I said that Adam doesn't fit, huh? And yes, you are carrying my purse," she said, directing the comment toward the baby rather than to Luke.

"And suddenly I'm glad that Emily ordered the head nurse to give you a private room," Luke muttered.

Lorelai raised her eyebrows. "With a view," she insisted.

Luke put the purse down and walked back to the chair he had pulled next to Lorelai's bed. "A view?" he asked. "There is no view."

"To my left, there is a view. Tall, backwards baseball cap, five o'clock shadow…" Lorelai mused, letting out a slight giggle.

Luke turned red. "Ah, jeez, Lorelai," he muttered.

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Come ON, she's fast asleep, and even if she were awake, she wouldn't be able to understand a word I just said, let alone the hidden connotation behind it."

"There was a hidden meaning behind that comment? A few hours ago, you swore all of that off," Luke said, surprised.

"But I wasn't really paying attention to exactly how studly you really are at that moment, I was a little preoccupied, you know, giving our daughter life?"

Luke unfolded the list and scanned it briefly before an idea popped into his head. "Well, let's see. I think we can compromise here," he said, getting comfortable in the chair.

Lorelai straightened up. "I think that's a possibility, too. What do you got?"

Luke leaned in toward Lorelai, pointing at a name that had clearly been added to the list after the fact. "I see this 'Lorelai' in pink pen at the top, circled about five hundred times."

"It's a backup, Luke, what could I say? And part of me really wants to name her Lorelai, as confusing as that would be."

"Her middle name can be Lorelai if I can pick her first name," Luke deadpanned.

Lorelai pouted. "But what if I hate it? Remember me, the one who you almost let throw ice chips at the nurses again? Remember the pain I was just in? I'm sure you remember my nails digging into your skin about an hour ago. Remember me? I'm sure you do."

"Well, how attached are you to the name 'Lorelai'? Because that won't even be an option if you don't want…" Luke started.

She looked at Luke, and a smile formed on her face. "All right, just stick to the list."

"Why was that easier than I thought it would be?"

Lorelai shrugged. "I don't know. You gave a compromise, I agreed. That's how it works. Where's the problem, Houston?"

"I wasn't saying it was a problem, it was just a little too easy," Luke replied, glancing at the list again.

"What can I say? I'm ever so weak, and I have not a drop of energy to waste!" Lorelai said in an overly dramatic tone.

Luke sighed. "And wait until the pain medication wears off," he muttered.

"We heard that, Daddy," Lorelai said.

"Seriously, why are you giving in so easily?" Luke asked.

Lorelai smiled. "Because part of me really just wants to see what you would call her. And the other part knows that whatever you pick will be off the list, and it will be adorable, and it will be special and cute. I didn't think you'd be very interested in the mushiness of it all."

"I like Kylie," Luke replied.

Lorelai smiled. "That is so cute, Luke, you old softie! Okay, Kylie, that's your name. No going back now, is there?"

"Nope, so I'm glad you like it," Luke said.

Lorelai looked up to see a figure running past her door. She heard heels clicking, then silence, then heels again. "I'll bet you twenty bucks that's Rory," Lorelai said, raising an eyebrow.

"Rory rarely wears heels, and why would she run in them? You're on," Luke shot back.

Lorelai hummed the 'Jeopardy' theme music as an out of breath Rory came into the room. "I got here as soon as I got Luke's panicky voicemail, and I just ran past your room… but I'm here now and… and I missed it!" Rory said, dropping her purse on the floor and trying to catch her breath.

Luke got up to give Rory his seat, while Lorelai grinned. "Aw, now I have both my baby girls in here, how adorable! And you know you're not heartbroken about missing what you've called 'the creepiest concept ever'. You're forgiven."

"And I have had no formal introduction," Rory said, motioning to her new little sister.

Lorelai cleared her throat and opened her mouth before Luke interrupted her. "Please, for Pete's sake, don't introduce her like you did to your parents."

Rory scrunched up her rose and collapsed in the chair. "Please don't tell me you did the wrestler bit."

"Uh… okay, I won't tell you," Lorelai said with a guilty smile.

"Mom! Grandma must have been so annoyed with you! But I would find that really funny. You can give me the wrestler bit later, but do it properly the first time," Rory insisted.

Lorelai sighed. "Fine, EMILY. This is your new little sister, Kylie Lorelai Danes. Would you care to hold her?"

Rory held out her hands and Lorelai gently passed Kylie on. Rory smiled. "Aw, she looks just like you, Luke!"

Lorelai pointed to Luke. "You are SO broke today, pay up!" she said, holding out her hand impatiently.

"Where are you going to keep it now?" Luke grumbled.

Lorelai pointed to her purse. "Just put it in there, pick up the purse and show Rory how it goes with your eyes!"

"Wow, you are really on the ball today, Mom!" Rory said with a smile.

"It's the pain medication, I'm sure," Lorelai grinned. "Remember the fun times we had with pain medication and Katie McKasty?"

Rory smiled. "Ah, Katie McKasty. A good cast she was."

"Who the hell is Katie McKasty?" Luke asked.

Lorelai shrugged. "You don't remember her, that's fine. She's just offended. She doesn't like you anyway."

"Katie McKasty was Mom's cast she got on her leg from the yoga incident," Rory explained.

Luke crossed his arms. "I should have known."

"Yeah, you should have," Lorelai said, insistent.

"Are you going to think of a nickname for her?" Rory asked.

Lorelai smiled. "I'll give her a nickname, but she's got to earn it. It's going to be a cute one. May I ask what that pretty bag is next to your purse that you ever so gracefully dropped?"

"You are shameless, aren't you?" Luke asked, rolling his eyes.

Rory handed Kylie to Luke as she walked to the site of the dropped bag. "Congratulations. I figured this would be something you'd really enjoy. Both of you. I'm sorry my talent isn't so great."

"Whatever it is will be fine, Rory, thank you," Luke said.

Lorelai pulled out a pink book from the bag. "Oh, Rory," she said, her mental light bulb going off.

"I figured Luke treasured his so much that Kylie would like to have one, too. I'm not a scrapbooking prodigy by any means, but I figured that you'd all enjoy this. And there's blank pages in the back of it to add more," Rory said with a smile.

Lorelai opened the album and the first page was filled with pictures of Lorelai and Luke. "Rory, this is… aww! I'm speechless!"

"That's really nice, Rory, thank you," Luke said.

Rory blushed. "Sure! Well, uh, I should probably let you guys explain who all these people are… so…"

"Stay, Rory! Don't just give me this present and leave me blubbering here," Lorelai said, flipping the page of the new family album to Emily and Richard's page.

"Okay, if you insist," Rory said, quietly.

Lorelai held up the book for Luke to see. "Luke, look at this. She included your parents, too."

Luke smiled. "That's why the picture box was on the night table the other day."

"I'm sorry, I just left it there and hid in the closet, I was going to get caught red handed and I didn't want to spoil the surprise," Rory apologized.

Lorelai hugged Rory. "Thank you, sweets."

"Of course. There's plenty of room in the back for pictures of birthdays, firsts, and all that… and possibly siblings if you so choose to bestow them upon her," Rory said with a smile.

Lorelai motioned for Luke to come over. "Come over here. We should look at the album from the beginning! Explain the pictures and the people to Kylie!"

Luke sighed and made his way over, realizing that he would have no say in this. He handed Kylie to Rory and sat next to Lorelai, putting his arm around her.

"Well, Kylie, this is your Mommy and your Daddy. See, Mommy and Daddy actually loved each other for a very long time, but neglected to tell the other of their true feelings," Lorelai began.

Luke watched as Lorelai explained the album to Kylie, and stared at Rory holding her. He knew this moment was one worthy of Kylie's new album. It was going to be a story he could tell when he needed to explain the album to Kylie again someday.

_The End_

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**A/N:** **I want to thank everyone who reviewed, alerted, and/or favorited this story. Your encouragement, your interest, and your enthusiasm is very much appreciated. These stories started way back in May, and now they're suddenly over. Now that the Gilmore Handbook/Danes Family Album saga is over, I'm not quite sure where to go next, but I'm glad to have you guys along for the ride. Thank you.**

**Love, Java**


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